Parenthood Narrative

Throughout life I’ve experienced a rather unpleasant childhood with the absence of my guiding figures: my parents. Seeing them rush in and out of the house to go to the hospital with my younger brother shaped me in a way nothing else could have. It made me who I am today, as well as aspired me towards what I want to be one day.

A positive self image is conveyed to all family members. Even minor accomplishments such as good report card grades are praised and sometimes awarded. The family is currently dealing with change as far as the grandfather’s illness. Selective inattention and intellectualization are two of the defense mechanisms being used for avoiding this problem (Clark, 2003). Slowly, the use of talking with family members and expressing both positive and negative emotions are being used as coping strategies. The entire extended family comes together in a crisis which helps every member of the family to deal with the situation.

The patience, compassion and encouragement of one person improved my family’s last years with its patriarch in countless ways. It was this improvement that inspired me to pursue a career as an

The aim of the writer of this paper will be to summarize this week reading of Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee, Family to Family: Leaving a Lasting Legacy. A discussion that he hopes to includes; an abstract, alone with a concrete response of a story about a significant event of his life, with a reflection of the Family to Family, conclude with three action steps that will describe what actions/changes need to be made as a result of reading this book.

Parenthood is the story of the Buckman family and their friends and how they attempt to bring up their children. They suffer and enjoy all the different aspects of life including estranged relatives, the "black sheep" of the family, the eccentrics, the skeletons in the closet, and the rebellious teenagers. The Buckman family is a typical midwestern family dealing with the basic tribulations of their lives, relatives, raising children, pressures of the job, and learning to be a good parent and spouse.

For my analysis I thought it would be interesting to look at the role of sex education and its importance within the Reproductive Justice narrative. I decided that I would talk to a group of friends about their middle school and high school sex education process so that I could get a better understanding of the wide range of sex education in America — or lack thereof in some cases. I conducted the interview in a group setting, as I thought it would be beneficial for everyone to compare their own experiences, while also listening to the similarities and differences within them. The first and second friend I interviewed had what I believe to be a typical high school sex education. Their classes touched upon things such as STI’s and safe sex practices, or more specifically the use of condoms.

A family consists of a couple key parts. First, the family plays an enormous role in one’s life by influencing the children. Due to the children

As the oldest of three siblings, I have had to do many things for myself that my younger brother and sister had done for them. For example, I had to fend for myself in attempting to obtain a driver’s license even paying someone to teach me to drive and take me to the exam, while my siblings had help from my mother in all aspects of the process. Also, the loss of my father has resulted in conflicts with the remaining parent, my mother. These conflicts were the result of economic struggle and disagreements about how to spend the monetary benefits left from my father’s passing. The position in my family as first‐born combined with the conflicts in my family, have led to life‐changing decisions such where to live, and what careers to pursue.

I did not realize that giving birth was so costly until now, I gave birth with a C-section and I was not charged for anything and I had a different insurance. Normally in New York, when you go to your first visit to the hospital and you don't have insurance they make you apply for one and it cover all the costs depending on the insurance. I stayed in the hospital five days and receive a lot of care from the

I learned to be a leader in my house at an early age because I desire to make my family and my life better by successfully continuing my education and finishing a four year university. More importantly, the desire to help my brother Carlos to get a better treatment for his condition, cerebral palsy. Today I contribute to Carlos’s everyday care. In fact, I sometimes shower, dress, feed, entertain and help in giving him therapy for his body palsy.

Being two parents at the same time to two growing boys, twenty-four hours a day isn’t a walk in the park. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love what you are doing or learning to do” One of my favorite quotes by the soccer player Pele. I purposely bolded the words sacrifice and love because my mother had to sacrifice so much to keep my brother and I afloat. I didn’t realize the hardships my mom was going through until I got a bit older. She was struggling in what seemed like every aspect of life and she’d never take it out on my brother and I. She always put us first, she would come to every parent teacher conference and to every soccer game. Even if it meant she had to work late other days to be able to attend these events. In my eyes a soccer game and a parent teacher conference seemed so trivial. Why go to those type of events when you could be catching up on sleep? Because her kids are her number one. When I first moved to North Central, I was happy to be free of my mom and to finally be able to be my own person. At first, it was great being able to do whatever I wanted without my mom lurking over me to tell me what to do. But about a week into preseason I noticed that I was making my bed everyday, cleaning up after myself. My mom always exceeded those things of me and I never actually did them at home. I felt like she was nagging me, but now I realize that her intentions were for my best. My respect for my mother and any other woman who works as hard or harder than she does is unparalleled. I know it may seem like I ranted about my mom a lot but I really wanted to give you a taste of how passionate I am about what she taught

Defying the Nuclear Family: Shortly after my seventh birthday, my parents began having fights much more often than they previously had in the past. Less than half a year later on January 15, 2005 their divorce became finalized and my father moved out of the house. For the first few months while he searched for a home to buy, my nine year old sister and I lived solely with our mother. Soon after, we began going back and forth between our parents’ houses, living at one house for a week and then switching over to the other the next. The two houses could not have been any more polar in how they were run, at my mother’s house there were strict rules and expectations to be followed.

I didn’t internalize how much the stories about family who died long before I was born affected me until I became a member of the Stewardship Council and realized the importance of offering a hand to anyone who needed it, and that the Babbitt family has done their best to do the right thing and help the community when they had more to offer. Being a part of the giving and service that the Stewardship Council strives for is an important piece of me, because I didn’t think I could make a difference in someone’s life as a teenager, and that real work to better the world could only be achieved by an experienced adult. The council has showed the necessity of continuing to fuel your passions, as well as fuel the desire to put others’ needs ahead of your

As my parents grew further apart, my siblings and I grew closer together. Having grown up in a rural community, my father was greatly supported emotionally, as our family and friends could see how the pressures of being the sole-provider weighed on him.

When I was ten years-old, my life changed profoundly. Everything my life had consisted of was suddenly separated from me by a fourteen-hour plane-ride. My family’s decision to move to South Korea to accommodate my father’s job would prove to have an immense effect on my character and leadership abilities.