My Supports

I love working with children and their families. I also know how emotional and challenging it can be at times. Therefore, I am always happy to go back home to my nuclear family as I know they are loving, supportive and more importantly ready to listen to me. The old saying, home sweet home, is meaningful in many ways. I love to go home.  My life would, frankly, be miserable without my family because we genuinely love and care for one another. The challenges I have in my own family is always feeling that I need to do more and meeting the needs of everyone before myself.  I am so happy that I am in the child development field because, every time, I am confronted with a problem in my family. I, frankly, go back to my books.  What does research say about this? I also have wonderful friends, and extended family members who I can rely on for help and advice. My friends and extended family members are another source of support that I truly appreciate because we always have fun together. We help each other and always work on making ourselves better friends, better parents and human beings.

My co-workers also provide a great deal of support for my professional development and my mental health. I work in a fairly stressful environment but with an amazing team. I am always supported with feedback, opportunities to express and expand my vision and more importantly opportunities to share and appreciate children with people who are as dedicated to the cause of children as I am. Without this support group, frankly, doing my job effectively could be challenging if not impossible. So I am truly thankful.  The major challenge that I find in my work environment is to see children suffer. It always breaks my heart see the children go through so much heartache because every child deserves to be loved unconditionally, treated with respect and given the opportunities to reach their full potential.  That is one of the reasons I am thankful for the AODA program staff. They do an outstanding job helping the children’s mothers get their lives back on track by providing counseling, case management, health education, family therapy among other services. This support system really complements our efforts to make a difference in the lives of the children. Without all the targeted support, quite frankly, our work would be meaningless as the research tells us that children’s developmental niche greatly impacts their behaviors (Taylor, 2010).

Reference

Taylor, K. (2010). Practical Guide to Caring for Children and Teenagers with Attachment Difficulties. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.