In-Laws

What's your first reaction when you hear the word "in-laws?" It seems as if most people see having to spend time with their spouse's parents as a hassle or an inconvenience, and this stereotype is certainly portrayed in nearly every TV show/movie produced these days. The common type's being that the wife's father can't stand the husband, and the husband's mother is disapproving of the wife, and this causes the couple to make distinct efforts to avoid spending time with the parent's. Which I think is a real shame.

I will preface my thoughts on this mindset by saying I am not married so I do not have any in-laws and perhaps my perception of in-laws will change when I am married but right now I think that is a terrible  attitude to have. The girl I marry is going to be wonderful and amazing and we could very possibly end up having a daughter and if this happens I would have no idea how to raise a daughter (I wouldn't know how to raise a son either but that's not the focus right now) and I would like to think that the first person I would turn to for help is the person that raised the wonderful and amazing woman that became my wife. I would be foolish not to learn from him and to be comfortable coming to him with concerns or ideas I would need a solid relationship with him first. If I can't sit in the room with the man and talk about basketball how can I call him at night and tell him my daughter had a nightmare and then ask him, how can I make her feel safe again? There has to be a foundation to build from so we could get to bigger things.

I understand that some women have issues with their parents that may have caused some strain on their relationship which would make it difficult for him and myself to have a relationship but I would still like to make an effort. I know there have to be boundaries but I want to be close to my father-in-law because I would want my son-in-law to be close to me.

Your in-laws are an example, sometimes they are examples of things to do and sometimes examples of things not to do, either way they are a learning opportunity, so don't waste it.

The Start of a Journey

"Really?" At least that's the usual response I get when people find out that I am an elementary education major. They don't seem to expect anything specific they just aren't expecting that. I have found that there are two general responses that people have after this point. They either say something like "aww, that's cool" or they will get this look and ask "you want to be a teacher?" (Thinking maybe I just wasn't sure what elementary education meant) After the latter response they pause and think and I stand there and wait, because about 75% of the time they decide they need to give me some advice about my career choice. They will mention something about how much I'm going to have to "deal with children", every time expecting me to drop my chin and say "wow, I hadn't considered that." Or even better, they'll say, always with a chuckle, "you're going to be sooo poor!" I usually give a little half laugh back while thinking 'yeah, people with full time jobs and advanced degrees being unable to provide for their families,' that is funny.

I've wanted to be an elementary teacher since I was sophomore in high school, and in the beginning comments like this bothered me a little bit but I've always had a job with kids so after a comment I would go to work and remind myself why I decided to do this in the first place. Now I've heard it so many times they just roll off my back and I move on with my day, because I want to be a teacher, I look forward to a year from now (Lord willing) setting up my own classroom and looking over a class roster. I just can't wait! So don't come up to me thinking you need to explain my career choice and tell my about how school life is difficult because, contrary to VERY popular belief, I have given this quite a bit of thought and do in fact know what I'm doing.

*I apologize if this came off as hateful I meant for it to be more of my observations of people's reaction to my career because I don't mind telling people that I'm a teacher, actually I'm quite proud of it. I just don't appreciate it being critiqued so consistently.

The beginning...

Preface: I don't know grammar, I don't know commas, I don't really know run on sentences  and I certainly don't know semi-colons. So there are grammatical mistakes in this, I understand this and it doesn't bother me. I made it through three years of college without knowing it so I do fine without it. Also I write while I'm talking to myself so I don't really do "academic language" so most of this will be like it was just a casual conversation. I would even go so far as make this a vlog so as to avoid punctuation but I don't like the way my voice sounds so I deal with the poor grammar.

Introduction: I'm not sure what I am going to accomplish with this blog. I'm kind of just jumping on a bandwagon that is led by a few people at work but there are a few things that I would like to say and get out in the open. I'm going to focus on education and my thoughts, feelings, and experiences there but I do have thoughts in other areas of life and I'm certainly not about to start several blogs to accommodate these topic changes so there will just be some intertwining of subjects. One in particular that I want to change but will do more venting than anything is man/father hood and some implications there. I'm sure there will be others that just pop in but those are what I can think of now that I will dub worthy to mention here. I don't have any schedule for this so things will just appear as they appear so buckle up, Jack!