Stressors for Kids

     As a child, my childhood was very full and happy.  My family was full of smiles, laughs, hugs, good food and generally all the happiness that is included in every TV show, cartoon and book was there.  However, in the world outside of my window, there was PLENTY of racism and the chaos that went along with it.  In my lifetime there was racism, marches, a Vietnam war, and riots and crazy speeches and the whole nine.  I was a little girl when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, when Malcolm X was killed, when JFK was killed, and when the country was just in a fervor over race and war.  I lived in the South on top of all of that.

     For many children this country, this kind of fervor had a negative impact, or at least a life-changing impact such as the Little Rock Nine.  Books have been written, movies have been made and I am sure that it does not escape anyone how grave growing up in those times were.  This does not even mean that persons of White decent did not have some of these experiences.  Can you imagine who cant be friends with whom, who cannot love whom and so on.  This was a crazy time.

     The outcome...I am unscathed.  I do not have any abject feelings about White people, our government, Black people,  or anyone else.  My family was encouraging, let me know that I was loved and special and really did not discuss much what was going on in the outside world.  I am not necessarily someone who will pick up a cause and beat down the pavement to make it keep happening but, I am passionate things.  I know that things matter and that I must speak on them but this also speaks to why childhood and family building is sooooo very important to me.  I was so comfortable and secure in my home that none of the rest of the world mattered.  My home was my world.

     I see that this is not necessarily so in other parts of the world. Children are bent on violence, hatred, and so many negative things because of their surroundings.  I think that it would help to separate things for kids again.  we need shows, music, and things for kids again. This will help them to be safe, and feel safe in their world.   I think that this will help kids separate the bad from the good and know that bad is not everywhere....this is our job as creators of a better world for our children.

Post Pardum Depression

The issue that I chose is Mental Health amongst families

Stress is bad enough when a child is succumbed to it but mental health takes this to a whole different level.  I am interested in post Pardum depression.  This is not touched upon much in our text however, I just think that it is fascinating.  I don't fully understand how a mother can be depressed following the birth of her child.  I would like to learn more about this to help the mothers if I should ever run into them and ultimately help the child also.

The following article is one that I found extremely interesting:

http://www.uppitysciencechick.com/how_other_cultures.pdf

This helps me in understand the full development of the family and fully understand how this course affects the family as a whole.

My Birthing Experience

     I have two favorite birth stories, those are when my two children were born.  I had two beautiful children.  I remember the time up to their birth more so than anything in life.  They were born through Cesarean however, I remember the sound that they made when they popped out  I remember what it sounds like when they made their first cry and their little teeth and their little toes. They are grown now but they are my greatest accomplishment.  I remember reading to them in my womb, one of them is a fantastic writer, I listened to Michael Jackson, "Man in the Mirror", that child is a HUGE Michael Jackson fan as well as a very talented performer.  The fetus when it is developing is crucial for both the mom and the child.  I can speak from personal experience how those times formulate the life of the child and bring about positive bonding which makes for healthy development later.