Families and Individuals in Societal Contexts

Introduction

According to the National Council on Family Relations, “Families and Individuals in Societal Contexts is an understanding of families and their relationships to other institutions, such as the educational, governmental, religious, healthcare, and occupational institutions in society.”

http://www.ncfr.org

The content area of “Families and Individuals in Societal Contexts” is about understanding families and their relationships to other organizations and to society itself. Throughout the whole world, families have different relationships with different parts of society and even to other families themselves. As a certified family life educator, it is important to realize a family’s relationship with society in each separate organization in order to help them in the best way possible. Families that have different cultures or even different origins relate back to society and to others in society in diverse ways.

Coursework

• Families and Diversity– This class helped me to be able to understand families in many different contexts. It has prepared me to be able to work with individuals and families who are different than me and helped me to understand where in society they are coming from.
• Introduction to Cultural Anthropology – Anthropology helped me to learn the differences and similarities of technological, social, and religious characteristics within a cultural system. This class has prepared me to have an open mind with different cultures and helped me realize that there are many different family structures.
• The Helping Relationship – This class helped me to focus on what happens behind the scenes of helping people by working on my own qualities that will be necessary in order to effectively help others. The Helping relationship has prepared me to be a Family Life Educator by focusing on my own skill sets that need to be established before helping others.

Experience

• Mission Trip – I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to San Marcos, Texas where we helped people who did not have the funds for adequate housing, food, or necessities. I got to help rebuild homes in an unsuitable area where many families were living. This experience helped me to understand different minority lifestyles and the lifestyles of families in various societies around the world who may be living in these same situations.
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• Crop Walk – For many years I participated in a walk called the “Crop Walk” with my church and other churches around the area. This event allowed us to walk for those who are hungry. It also made me realize what other communities and families were facing.
• Life Choice Ministries – Internship – Being at my internship has made me realize how important it is for resources to be present in the community. So many different organizations strive to help those in need and to be able to lend a helping hand to the community. Each and every client that comes in has a different life story and experience that makes them the way that they are. Each person has also been impacted by some part of the community and by society that helped to develop their outlook on life.

Reflection

            I believe that every decision made in life is based on your families or your own individual take on society. Every person has a different amount of input that is in each area of society which forms who we are and why we do what we do. We also each have different reasoning’s for why each area has more or less of our attention. In my family, we focus a lot on the church and educational societal contexts. These areas are important to us because they play a part in how both of my parents were raised. Our other relationships within society are not as strong because our faith has always come first in our lives.

There are many different cultures and societal connections all around us. Not one family is alike in the ways that they contribute and relate to society. As a Certified Family Life Educator it is very important to be able to understand how each individual responds. As a doula it is very important to be able to have these conversations about how the couple and family see themselves within their society and what their relationships are like within each context of society. Every couple is going to want a different birth plan depending on their beliefs, culture, and other life decisions. As a doula it is important to understand why they want the birth plan that they do. There may be spiritual guidelines to follow, family traditions that want to be upheld, or new traditions that a couple may want to start for their birth plan.

I think that in today’s society a topic that has been surfacing is marriage. There are so many different ideas and views on when to get married, when to have children, who to live with, when couples can or should live together, and many more topics that have to do with couples all around the world. In my Families and Diversities class I learned about many different cultures and how they relate back to dating and marriage. Certain cultures or religions do not like the idea of couples living together and having sex before marriage, and other cultures look past that view. Some cultures have their definition of marriage and dating, while others have definitions that contradict to those views. As a Certified Family Life Educator it is very important to look past your own personal outlook on society to be able to help those in need who may have different values than yourself. It is also important to be able to step into other culture’s shoes to provide the best resources for a family. By doing this, one can start to notice what resources are needed and which ones will fit certain people rather than others.

Being able to help with resources as a doula is a huge part. It is also huge to be able to recognize what resources are being needed for the family that is being worked with. While at my internship, I have noticed that the resource list is a major asset to the community and to the clients who come in. While we can help with many resources for a client, we don’t always have all of the necessary resources that are needed. Being able to recognize and help out with those resources that are needed is what is going to really help people within the community.

Internal Dynamics of Families

Introduction

According to the National Council on Family Relations, “Internal Dynamics of Families is an understanding of family strengths and weaknesses and how family members relate to each other.”

http://www.ncfr.org

Internal dynamics of families is about understanding the relationships and characteristics between family members. As a certified family life educator there are going to be many times where understanding family dynamics is going to come into play. It is important to know how certain family members relate to each other and what strengths and weaknesses there are within families. There are many different family structures throughout the world and I believe that each type has their own internal dynamics within the family.

Coursework

• Developing Intimate Relations – This class explored different topics within intimate relationships such as communication, attraction, cohabitation, and conflict. All of these topics play into the dynamics of a family and help establish how all of the family relationships are functioning. This class prepared me to be able to seek out different problems within a family to help the relationships grow.
• Family Relationships and Gender Roles – I learned about different interactions within the family including premarital, marital, and parent-child relationships. I got to explore different developments within a family that help to establish what the dynamics are within a family. Family Relationships and Gender Roles helped to prepare me to work within the interactions between different family members.
• The Family – This class gave me the knowledge of what different families can look like within the family life cycle. I learned about the different classes of families and how each class affects the different members of the family. I got to explore different scenarios of families and what the support and services would look like under each scenario. This class has prepared me to work with many different families’ including different working classes, economical classes, and families who don’t fit under the “normal” definition of what a family would consist of.

Experience

• St.Jude – Up ‘Til Dawn – I was on the K-State executive board for St. Jude – Up ‘Til Dawn. UTD is a college lead philanthropy that helps to support St. Jude. I was in charge of the opening ceremony which included being involved with the patient family.
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• Life Choice Ministries Internship – I have been able to aid mothers of young children with their life and family problems. I have had the chance to observe many different dynamics and relationships within a family.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters – I was a big sister to a girl who was in 3^rd grade. I was her big for three years and I really enjoyed being a part of her life. This play into Internal Dynamics and Families because there is always a reason for why a child is in the BBBS program. It is important to know how families work so that you can meet the needs of people in the best way possible.

Reflection

Growing up I was part of a family with my two parents and one older brother. Neither my parents nor either of my grandparents had ever been divorced. This set an example for what I thought a normal family was. Like any family, we had our strengths and weaknesses that developed who we are as a family. As I started to grow up I noticed that some of my friends didn’t share the same family values as I did. I had different friends who had divorced parents, step parents and siblings, and sometimes just a single parent. I started to realize in high school that there were many different dynamics of families just within my small school. Once I got to college I met a lot more people who had families completely different than mine. Even through my friends in college I started to notice the differences in the relationships my friends had with their parents, siblings, and other members of their family. My own personal experiences with my family have shaped the basis of my knowledge, but haven’t limited my learning for what other people are experiencing in their own families.

Acknowledging that there are many different dynamics and relationships within families is what helped me to be able to learn about internal relationships in families. Being able to understand the different dynamics and relationships within a family is a huge part of the job of a Doula. Doula’s are there to be able to help the father comfort and understand the mother while in labor so that the experience can go as smooth as possible for the couple. It is also important to know the relationships with the other family members such as siblings and grandparents so you know how to fit them into the birth if that is what is wanted by the parents. Before a women goes into labor, it is important to have talked with the parents about their relationship and the family dynamic so that issues don’t occur when it is time to give birth. A doula needs to know the strengths and weaknesses of the parents, their stressors both individually and together as a couple, and their goals for the labor and delivery.

All of my experience and class work have helped me to be able to work as a doula and to have the knowledge of the many different ideas of families and within families. It is important to me to be able to work with families and create a bond that goes beyond what they are presenting on the outside. Labor and delivery is such an intimate moment for both the mother and father and that is something that needs to be cherished between the couple. A good doula will know how to aid a couple so that they are allowed and able to cherish the moment between each other by understanding the internal dynamic of the family and of the couple. My class work and experiences have taught me how to build a relationship with families so that I can start to learn information on what makes their family a family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Human Growth and Development across the Lifespan

Introduction

According to the National Council on Family Relations, “Human Growth and Development across the Lifespan is an understanding of the developmental changes (both typical and atypical) of individuals in families throughout the lifespan based on knowledge of physical, emotional, cognitive, social, moral, and personality aspects.”

http://www.ncfr.org

When someone thinks about human growth and development, one might think of the growth milestone that happens to a human being from birth to death. To me, human growth and development is what makes a person truly who they are because of those milestones. Human growth and development is all of the memories, both bad a good, the changes through-out the life with ones emotions and physicality, and the one’s own different meanings of the world as a person goes through life.

Coursework

• Introduction to Human Development– Learning about a human’s life development by studying their emotional and physical changes, milestone memories, and their own definition of the world and how it has changed throughout their life. This class has prepared me to work in an environment with babies and children because it has taught me what normal stages look like and how to handle people in certain parts of their life.
• Human Development and Aging– The study of the stage of aging in the human development process. This class has prepared me to be able to help others when dealing with family members or friends who are in their older years
• Early Childhood Development– Learning about the development of children starting from pregnancy to early childhood by studying milestones, behaviors, and growth. Early Childhood Development has prepared me to work with infants and children because it taught it me how to care for and handle this age group.

Experience

• Student Teacher Aide – I worked as a student teacher aide for the K-State Center for Child Development in the infant, toddler, and “twos” room. This gave me experience with watching and learning how children develop in their first few years.
• Vacation Bible School Teacher – I worked as a VBS teacher in the Pre-K classroom for my church. I was the main leader for my group of Pre-K children and was in charge of leading them to each activity and guiding them in the VBS service. This was a great experience to watch how children learn and react in a different setting.
• Nursing Home Services – I have helped with the Sunday afternoon services in the nursing homes around our community with my church one Sunday a month. We lead a church service and sat and talked with the people in the nursing homes. This was a great experience to be able to connect with adults of that age.

Reflection

Human growth and development is really important to me because I believe that it is the base of how all humans act. I have always had the interest in working with children since I was younger. Gaining all of my experiences and learning everything that I have in my classes is what has helped to strengthen my interest in this. Working as a student teacher aide for children ages newborn through 3 years of age has really put my classwork into perspective with how children grow and learn at these young ages. I have seen children reach many different milestones while working in the classroom and have gotten to see how each individual child develops differently from the next child.

I have come to learn from my experiences that each human is going to go through growth and development in their own ways and at their own pace. I think this is important to remember when working with families and infants because not everybody is going to have the same story or situation. This doesn’t relate to just physical growth and development, it also includes social, moral, and emotional too. Every infant and child is going to be in a different place for development and so are their families, including the parents and siblings. When working as a doula I think it is very important to realize that each family is going to have their own unique story and that growth and development is going to be a part of their everyday lives.

It is amazing to see all of the effort that I have put into class work to learn about human growth and development come into perspective with my work and my future career. Not only have I seen myself recognizing my learnings in child development, but also in aging development as I watch my grandpa struggle with Alzheimer’s. Growth and developments impacts people differently at the different stages of development. I have seen my family react in many different ways to my Grandpa’s aging and it has helped me to have already learned about the aging aspect of growth and development. This experience has helped me to realize that everybody has their own thoughts and reactions to growth and development, and that people of different ages react differently from each other based on their own stage of development. I have personally seen how the stage of aging has impact both family and friends.

I see human growth and development in my everyday life as I work with my people in school, in my job, and in my everyday social life. It is a major factor to me for how humans are the way that they are because everybody has different life experiences that shape them into who they are today. Having experience with human growth and development is important in any career that works with people because it sheds a light onto the background story of the people who you are truly caring for.

 

Human Sexuality

Introduction

According to the National Council on Family Relations, “Human Sexuality is an understanding of the physiological, psychological, and social aspects of sexual development throughout the lifespan, so as to achieve healthy sexual adjustment.”

http://www.ncfr.org

Human sexuality helps to define the way that a human sees themselves and how they view others in the world in a physical, mental and emotional way. Human sexuality is important to understand, especially in today’s society. It is what makes our cultures, communities, and societies the way that they are. As a human being, it is what drives us to decide how we live our lives and in what way we choose to see ourselves. As a professional it is important to have an understanding of how and why human sexuality defines a person or a family.

Coursework

• Introduction to Human Sexuality– Learning the roles and meanings of sexuality to humans throughout the development stages. This class has prepared me to be able to work with people who may be different than me with more of an understanding of how they view themselves and others.
• Family Relations and Gender Roles – Studying the different roles within families in regards to the different sexes. This class has prepared me to have both society’s view and my own view of roles within the family and with genders in different family settings.
• Women’s Studies – Overview of the history of women and how women are viewed in today’s society in regards to their power, duties, and limits. This class has prepared me to think outside of the box when thinking about how the world views one gender as a whole.

Experience

• Big Brothers Big Sisters -I participated as a big sister for an elementary student during her 4th and 5th grade years.  I learned and watched how human sexuality affects children during the elementary school stage.
• Child Care -I have worked as a student teacher aide in the K-State daycare and as a babysitter/nanny for multiple families. I have watched how human sexuality has influenced the lives of children in their everyday lives.

Reflection

Human sexuality is a topic that is brought to the surface many times in today’s society. Human sexuality is really about becoming who you truly are both inside and out in regards to emotions, physicality, and one’s own view of others in the world. I think that it is a very important topic because so many people in this world don’t feel like they can express themselves or truly be who they are. In my community there was never much talk about there being differences in people in regards to sexuality. There always seemed to be one way a girl should act or one way a guy should act and anything much different from that wasn’t the norm. I learned that there is a whole new way of thinking about human sexuality after coming to college and learning about the differences in people and how each individual expresses their own sexuality. When I was younger, I wanted to be involved with activities that guys were involved with, but I still liked girly activities and that was just the way I grew up. I was expressing my own sexuality and creating my own identity for who I was going to be and wanted to be. I wanted to be able to be involved with both genders activities even though I am a girl. Clearly, on the outside and my thoughts and feelings on the inside were the sexuality of a girl and that is who I am, but I do think for other people it might be more complex than this.

Being a doula is more than just helping a women through labor. Human sexuality can be related to being a doula because it is helping two people become bonded for the sake of a new life being born to the world. In a situation of labor and delivery we can clearly see the physicality of each person and how the physical part of human sexuality works within that situation. We know that human sexuality is a major part of the pregnancy stage of life with both the parents and the unborn child. One part of human sexuality that we don’t get to see in a pregnancy and labor situation as clearly is the physiology side. Part of the job of a doula is to help the mother and father bond with each other and then with the baby when it is born. Knowing how the physiology part of human sexuality will help to be able to bring the parents and the new baby together and being able to bond.

Human sexuality is a topic that is important to be informed about and have the knowledge in because today the world is changing its views on how people perceive it. It is easy to jump on the bandwagon about human sexuality because it can be an uncomfortable topic to talk about. Human sexuality is more than the act of sex, but is also the true meaning of an individual and can sometimes be something difficult to talk about. It may be difficult to talk about because everybody has a different open regarding human sexuality. In today’s world we see so many views and ideas of human sexuality based on physicality, but what is missing is the actual emotions that are placed behind that physicality.