Reflection Blog #8

        This week I read the article “Is There Love After Baby,” this article was very interesting in the fact that many people think that once they have a baby that things will change for the better or the almost failed relationship will somehow be revived. The author writes that half of the parents will get a divorce by the time their child turns 18 which is a huge number, and would scare anyone into not wanting to have children. The author also writes that there is also a huge misconception about where the problems are coming from after having a baby. Most of the problems are present, but are suppressed and after the baby the problems are then reveled, and most often are blamed on the new addition to the family. One of the major problems a new mother or even father face is postpartum which can lead to child abuse. I think it is even more dangerous when there is an unstable marriage. If I could talk to the author I would want to know how to be better prepared for a child and how to know when your relationship is stable enough.

            I know a few people that got pregnant in high school because of bad choices, but not all of them doomed with no future. I don’t in any way believe that children should be having children, but I know one couple who had a child but are now married with another one. I believe that that proves their relationship must have been right. It does not take much to get pregnant, but it takes everything to raise one. 

Reflection Blog #7

Reading the article “Should You Stay Together For The children,” really hit a soft spot. I don’t have a definite yes or no, and I believe that there is no right or wrong for everyone. Every situation is so unique and for people to decide what is good or bad for a family to me is very wrong. At one point in the article they said that staying outweighed the benefit for the children which I find it cannot be true for most families. If I could speak with the author I would want to know on what kind of situations were the families in that they studied on.

            Growing up I was always taught that divorce is out of the question and that a women can make or break a marriage. Now days you find more people divorced than married. My aunt and uncle have never had a good marriage even as a child I would always hear them yelling when we were over and the children always complained life was very hard for them. Two people who can’t stand each other raising children they did not divorce until the children had grown up and everyone took is somewhat hard, but now things have improved for everyone. The mother is happy the father is happy and they both remarried. Divorce worked for them and the children, but their situation will never match another.  I know many families where the parents don’t get a divorce and the children are into drugs, alcohol or are pregnant. Each family needs to make their own decision on what is right for them, and it is no one’s right to judge.

Reflection Blog #6

          It was very interesting reading “Inside the Teen,” because it is very fascinating that being a teen means there are many excuses for having absurd behavior. I personally don’t believe it and feel it is greatly exaggerated and teens that are extreme in their behavior are the few among normal teens. My favor part about the article was when the author wrote “yes, teenagers do have brains, but theirs don’t yet function like adults”. This was interesting because people are actually questioning it, and they shouldn't be children need borders and structure not, oh he/she is just a teenager. Yes they grow out of that stage of being rebellious, but what kind of mistakes are we actually allowing out children to make for the same of them being a teen? We need to teach them how to control their emotions and behaviors not hope and pray that they figure it out. If I could speak with the author I would want to know more about how parents should act, and control their teen’s behavior so that the behavior can controlled with minimal damage. 

            

         My parents have been fairly strict my whole life and especially during my teenage years. The worst thing I have even done was date a boy, and that was in high school. I am very grateful for their nosiness, control, and borders because who know what I could have done to myself or my future. I don’t truly believe in small mistakes they all hurt you in one way or another and teens don’t have the mental capacity to handle that kind of stress.

Reflection Blog #5

I really enjoyed this week’s reading because I plan on writing about parenting in my special topic paper. There is nothing worse for me then a parent who isn't willing to do whatever it takes. This week I read the article Parenting: The Lost Art, and as sad as it may be children are not being raised like they used to be. I really like the part where the author said that children are the ones who pay the price in the end not the parents. I find this very interesting because I feel that every parent wants to do their best in raising their children. Parents that may have had very uptight parents want to be looser and cooler parents, and the same goes for the parents who didn't have parents who cared and went a little over board with their own children. I think that in the generation I grew up in it was more focused on bringing up their children in a polite, clean, and a disciplined environment whereas this generation is all about expressing yourself and being the cool parents and telling themselves that they rather have their kids drinking at home rather than anywhere else. The sad truth is that many parents give up at a certain point and just have no energy to fight their children anymore and just go with the flow. If I could talk with the author I would want to know out of all the parents who went the easy and laid back route with their children wanted the opportunity to go back, and redo their parenting. I wanna bet that all of them did. Parenting is a very delicate art and I say this with the out-most respect. Parents need a balance between every child because each and everyone they raise will be different,  and what worked with their 1st might not ever work with their 2nd or 3rd.  

            Technology is so advanced now days that meeting someone without a television is withdrawn and weird. Instead of drawing the right conclusion in the fact that it actually might be smart. I remember as a child when we would go on road trips, forget the GPS and phones and maps. My dad or mom would have all the directions with written out by hand on how to get to where we were going and we did a lot of the old fashion of pulling over and asking for direction, and that was normal to us. Today I cannot even leave the home without my phone, I feel that the world would end if I was not able to check my email or messages.

            Our generation needs to realize that there is so much we can actually control in our lives, and our children are worth the fight and find the voice that is in each and every one of us. Technology is not a bad thing neither is TV or video games, but anything good can be just as bad. As parents we need to find that balance between raising proper young adults rather than laziness and being afraid of not being cool. Our children deserve to grow up feeling like they have the right tools to go on and not feel as though they have no one to turn to for guidance because all they have every know was their parents as their friends and never having anyone truly to look up to. 

Reflection Blog #4

            After reading the article “Medicating Young Minds,” it really made me think about my childhood, and how even I experienced many different emotions and waves or moods and behaviors. Yet I don’t remember popping medication for anything or everything that was wrong with me. It was very interesting in the article they mentioned that we are raising generation Rx (prescription). I find this very true, there is nothing a person can have there isn’t medication for. I am not anti medication, but I am against medicating children unless absolutely necessary. We are messing with growing, and developing children who could possible improve with simply growing up, but we would never know with all the chemicals they are taking by the time they are 8 years old. If I could discuss this with the author of the article I would want to know more information on diagnosing techniques and how to be more thorough and prevent over medicating or completely avoid it. Children are so fragile and their brains are still trying to figure things out, and I think we should let it grow before interfering for the most part. Some children are indeed sick and need help, but this should not be the standard across the board.

            When I was in middle school it was very rare to meet or hear of someone who was on medication and if they were it was taken very seriously. Now days I find that every other person has something wrong with them and has a list of prescriptions they are taking.  I believe that ADHD is so common today that many children/teens will make up any excuse not to go to school or get some kind of attention. Or every the opposite parents thinking something is wrong with their child when they are just developing. Disorders are abused by too many people and there should be a much stricter procedure to ensure the most possibly safest route for our children.