This Weeks Class Discussion

 What a week! I really really enjoyed this weeks discussion and brought it up multiple times to a lot of my roommates, family and friends. Even my boyfriend! It was a good discussion to have together and it was something that it is important to me.

So here it is. We talked about parents relationship with their kids and the roles that are played and can be played in the family.

When we think of family we think of a mom and a dad and kids as they come along. In the olden days, the woman stayed home doing the cooking and cleaning while the man went to work. The kids played outside and all was right in the world. But now days, maybe the woman will be the one at work all day while the man was at home taking care of the kids and holding down the fort so to speak? Every family dynamic is different and what works for some people might not work for others.

One thing that we talked about was nannies. Having a nanny help around the house works for some families and might be necessary if both the mother and the father are working full time or even part time.

Its kind of funny because I used to be a nanny! The mom is a personal trainer with her own company and whatnot and has been extremely successful. In the beginning though, the dad had his own landscaping business and that had been doing really well also but then when the moms business starting picking up and more and more clients were asking for her advice and assistance the dad ended up selling his portion of his business to help her out more with her business. With both of them just working on the personal trainer slash fitness business they needed a nanny! And it was me!

I've actually known this family for a long time. I was babysitting for this moms sister and she ended up coming by at one point and asked if I liked babysitting. She had her twin baby girls at the time and I would only watch them for maybe 2 hours on the weekends so not a whole lot. And as the twins got older they got a sister and I continued babysitting the three little girls minimal amounts. Then I graduated high school. The mom reached out to me to nanny them way more and take them out of the house.

I ended up serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints so I had to leave the girls and the job behind which I was very sad about. But then the year and a half ended and I came back to four little girls in the house! Granted the youngest was too young to take along with us but still having the three girls being older it was a major handful.

I absolutely loved nannying for them but at times it was hard to know when and if I was overstepping boundaries at any time. It was a hard place to determine all the ins and outs of what was okay for me to say to the girls while I was in charge of them. But the way the parents treated me and the relationship I had with them and the girls made it so fun and it was definitely my favorite job I've ever had.

But this is an example of a newer dynamic of the family in todays world. Both parents work and the kids need to be cared for sometimes by someone outside of the family. This didn’t take away the love from the parents to the children and their relationship.

Another thing I really loved in our discussion in class was how parents need to have boundaries with their kids. Kids should not be involved in all of the discussions that moms and dads have with each other. There needs to be a distinct and healthy line between kids and parental conversations.

I have a friend who is the oldest in her family. They are very traditional people and do things the old fashioned way. They rely on her way too much. She is involved with a lot of the adult things that most kids shouldn’t be involved in. the reason being, kids need to be kids. Adults need to keep the stress of adult things to themselves and allow the kids to continue to be kids and receive help with adult things as they get older and move out of the house. The right boundaries are good.