Parenting Class

In this post, I want to talk include things I learned in my Parenting class. I hope my professor won't mind. I am going to ask him if I can continue to do this, but I just love all of the things I learn in my Parenting class and want to share it with y'all. To start off, I will talk about a few things I learned in my Family Relations class. For a homework assignment, I watched an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond called "The Gift". I was so excited to watch it because I find this show entertaining and I used to watch it with my dad. I think one reason I  find this show interesting is because of the family dynamics that I am not used to. The parents of Raymond have a love-hate relationship. They joke around a lot in ways that normal families would probably find very hurtful. Raymond and his wife always feel obligated to please the Ray's parent and are not completely honest with them. Ray's brother, Rob, is always fighting for attention with the parents and is always in a competition with Raymond. Overall, I don't think it is a very healthy family relationship, but hey! It provides for good entertainment, right? Whatever works for the entertainment industry. Hopefully people don't watch it and think that families should look like that. :P Well, while I observed the relationships in the show, I noticed how harmful it can be to have sibling rivalries. For some, it is just a playful thing that kids will grow out of, but often it can grow into something far more serious. Sibling rivalries cause problems as the children grow older. The siblings can grow distant and become bitter against each other. I feel like sibling rivalries can somewhat be avoided if the parents don't allow it to become an issue. Based on what I have observed, sibling rivalries are usually caused by children trying to impress their parents. They want to feel loved and good enough. If parents give the impression that one child is better than the other or seem more interested in one child's activities, the other child or children will work against that child to one-up them. It can cause a lot of tension in the home. Something seemingly trivial as that can and should be avoided before it becomes a bigger problem. 

In my parenting class, I learned about personalities and different temperaments of children. I watched some videos on YouTube that are called BBC Child Of Our Time- The Big Personality Test. I found these videos very cool to watch. It shows the different personalities of the children participating in this big test. The researcher follow the children up until they are ten and see how they developed their personalities and temperaments and how they have played a role in their life. I won't go into lots of detail, but I highly recommend watching the videos. Just look them up on YouTube. The personalities that they talked about in the videos were openness, agreeableness, contentiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism. You can take a test to see your personalities and how high or low you are in these areas here http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/ 

I learned that it is important to know the personalities of your children are so that you can better accommodate them. All children learn differently and react differently. It is hard to relate to and connect with your child if you don't understand how they are viewing the world. When you understand more about your child, you will be able to help your child in those areas where they need more help or encouragement. Get to know your children better. Have one on one conversations with them. Take time to spend an afternoon with them. Let them know you care about them and take an interest in their life. Don't just let them know, though. SHOW them. Actions speak louder than words. 

Thanks for reading! 'Til next week.