Relationship Reflection

Consistent quality relationships with caring people, characterized by trust, support, and growth form the foundation for healthy development. I believe for man to exist in a society it is essential to form an environment of relationships because proper human relationships form the basis of society. They incorporate the qualities that best promote competence and well-being – individualized responsiveness, mutual action-and-interac­tion, and an emotional connection to another human being. It is relationships that help us define who we are, what we can become, and how and why we can impact another life. 

Beginning from my birth up to this very day there are several nurtured and stable relationships that play an important role in my life. Starting with my relationship with - my God, my parents, my husband, my son, my husband’s parents, our siblings, my relatives, my colleagues, my students and their families, our church members – makes me who I am and what I have become today. My religious faith has laid the foundation on which I stand and it is my personal relationship with my God that gives me the assurance and the confidence that I need to face my life’s challenges. The relationship with my husband is built on mutual trust and understanding that has kept us together for the past 14 years, even through the times of sorrow and loss when I miscarried and lost our twin boys and through our life’s daily challenge of raising a mentally challenged child. The relationship with my mother is that of love and care which she has so unconditionally bestowed upon me and even sacrificed her desires and her health to stay with me and be a support for me in taking care of our son. Admiration and respect has been the basis of the relationship with my child care center director who has been a mentor to me, guiding me and encouraging me to make me the teacher I am today and motivating me to learn further because of which I am now doing my masters.

Off course, life is not a fairy tale where everyone lives “happily ever after”. In real life there is no magic recipe for happy relationships. Maintaining relationships requires effort and perseverance. Especially, with the relationships that I share with my colleagues and friends. As each person is an individual from their own culture and upbringing, whose experience, education, gender and professional affiliations all differ, it can be quite a challenge to coexist. The road to a successful relationship can be full of potholes and detours, but “staying on course” and maintaining important relationships is a worthwhile endeavor. Appreciating each other and respecting each other, giving each individual in your life the value and significance they deserve, demonstrating empathy and concern, being honest and supportive is the key to maintaining the relationships.

Some of these relationships that I share is more than just mutual interaction, they are more personal, and is therefore the foundation of bidirectional partnerships. Effective partnership is based on agreement of aims, of goals, and of the means to achieving those goals. However, it's unrealistic to expect that everyone will agree immediately on everything. So a relationship that is founded on respectful negotiation is the key to building effective partnership.

As an early childhood professional, building effective partnership with every family is essential in promoting the development of the whole child. Recognizing that human relationships are the ‘building blocks’ that are required for the child’s development and building on partnership with the families of the children under my care, overlooking the biases I may unconsciously carry, building individualized, respectful, responsive and supportive relationship with the families, is the basis for building effective relationships because “Life is about relationships. We all need one another”.