What a week! I go to practice my bedside manners at the hospital.
I missed class this week due to the fact that one of my sons was hospitalized after hydroplaning, tail spinning, and flipping his car. He is alive! No one else was involved in the accident. No broken bones. Fractured sternum (healed), severed right ear (reattached and healing, hopeful for no hearing loss), very sore and bruised, totaled car, interrupted his military plans (Navy) of leaving for basics this Tuesday...but did I say ALIVE! Yes. Thankful. We will manage to walk through the healing process and interruptions. Dr. Steffes, thank you so much for your understanding, and encouraging me to be the good parent, and stay beside him this week.
Speaking of parenting, I read over the article "Effects of Parenting Styles on Children's Behavior," and was really wishing I had read that article 20 years ago! I think that my wife and I are fairly great parents, but unfortunately I fear some of the early years were partially Authoritarian Parenting. I would like to re-parent my eldest because of that. I followed a pattern set in front of me, that I didn't recognize needed to change until a few years into parenting. I am a much different parent today, than I was then. Very thankful. So, I think my two eldest got a little authoritarian, with a final DASH of authoritative. My lovely daughter, whom the boys probably think is "spoiled" is getting mostly a large serving of authoritative parenting (I hope!). My boys have been gracious, as we have discussed the changes made during their lives. I am so blessed that we get to talk about it, and they too acknowledge to changes we/I have worked toward.
The Ruddell chapter readings (3-4) were "full" and sometimes hard for me to grasp everything they were attempting to toss my way, but in general I found the "How to..." parts very helpful in determining how to use each of the recommended activities. I think I would lean mostly toward utilizing ReQuest and DR-TA. I do like interaction with others and having open-ended discussion. I may lean a little too far to the open-ended side, with a slight possibility of forgetting where I was going, or what point we were really trying to arrive at with the discussion. I believe the class activity would have been helpful for me to solidify some of the processes to walk through to keep it clean and on target. If anyone has a portion of their activity to share with me from this week, that would be appreciated.
I look forward to a very boring, non-eventful weekend/week...
"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." - The Little Engine that Could
Keep on keeping on my friend. I think open ended questions are great as well, but yes, can easily lead us to the long and winding road. I think, to some degree as a parent we all
ReplyDeleteGo through an authoritarian stage but it's important that we realize it and work to avoid going back to it.
ReplyDeleteYou will come through this saying, "I thought I could, I thought I could..."
ReplyDeleteI am thankful to hear that your son is healing.
I would agree with parenting styles and the changes that are made as one parents. We have five and our last three and soon to be two are being parented differently than the first two were. I always pray that God fills in the gaps since He is the the ultimate parent. I also pray for grace, to know when to extend it to myself.
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
Terrill, I am so glad that your son is recovering from his accident. I completely get where you are coming from with your response to the article we read in class about parenting styles and how it affects child behavior. Parenting isn't easy to say the least. In so many ways I have had to adjust my own thinking so that I can better teach my own children. As for the text, I do like the "how to" directions as well. This helps me with comprehension and gives me some ideas on what sort of strategy I can use for a lesson.
ReplyDeleteSo happy that you could be there for your son. Those chapters were tough and deep. I, too, was an authoritarian parent, but I know where I learned it from! I would also like the chance to reparent my kid but I doubt she'd agree to that.
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