Problems, setbacks, disappointments, and mistakes are inevitable in life. Problems cannot be avoided, but how individuals respond after their occurrence shapes their lives. An experience is often created after encountering moments in life. Reflection forms part of learning aimed at achieving understanding of the event encountered. The following paper discusses how we learn from reflection rather than experience and provides a review of the semester’s teaching especially on parenting.
Learning is a consequence of reflection and occurs continuously throughout life. Human beings encounter different life situations where the negative ones have a detrimental effect on their mental health. They do not often remain stuck in the situation forever since life has to move on hence are taught a lesson or two. Steps are usually taken to bring them back to their senses. Also, the human mind can store previous information of events done. Therefore, in cases of such an event, they often have an earlier experience.
The process through which the mind recalls, analyses, and sees events in the broader dimension and considers how what is realized can be used in the future is called reflection. The latter also refers to an intellectual evaluation of an individual’s formal learning and professional activities, leading to new knowledge and unique understanding. Practicing meditation enables people to develop an ability to see oneself when the event occurred. The latter also influences people’s behavior once a previously encountered situation arises. Reflection is a cyclic process involving the creation of a detailed description of an event and analyzing its context. This is followed by recalling feelings triggered and evaluating the event to determine if it was good or bad. Analysis precedes where the event is broken down and a conclusion drawn. Finally, a decision is made on how the situation can be dealt with in the future.
Through meditation, individuals have the opportunity to get the most out of their previous experiences. They can identify their stronger and weaker abilities, which they learn to improve in every step. Through reflection, people develop essential life skills for solving problems. Experiences strengthen the mindset, but meditation increases skills in that field of interest. For example, students bounce from one adventure to another on a typical school day. They start their day engaging in English where they need to comprehend on poems. From there, they jump to mathematics, where they obtain ordeals in solving problems. They then jump into a science lesson where they observe complex chemical reactions. Each event encountered presents an opportunity of gaining more knowledge and skills. They then head home tired after a busy day with many happenings and wake up to repeat this cycle of events the following morning.
Unfortunately, the experiences encountered have little impact effect on their learning. This is due to a lack of time to reflect on the experiences since they shift from one lesson to another with a limited time in between. They, therefore, rely on some cluttered memories; hence their minds do not develop the ability to connect new information taught and the old one. To ensure reflective learning is embraced, it is essential to adopt a more proactive approach where cultural forces come into play. Reflection requires time, and the best outcomes are observed immediately within the same environment, for example, classroom for students.
For students, reflection requires an opportunity for them to demonstrate their skills. This increases with expectations; for example, when students learn their parents need them to be reflective practitioners, they embrace reflective learning. It necessitates modeling where an adult act as a role model for motivating them. Since reflection has proven to increase knowledge, it should be made a routine where individuals practice it on most occasions. It is also dependent on the interaction occurring in an individual’s life. Meditation of positive educational interactions leads to the adoption of new skills. The environment is also essential in reflection since a calm environment is more conducive to internalizing the concepts and experiences.
Reflecting on the course content, I have learned how difficult it is to balance job and family life as a parent. When a good work-life balance is maintained, a parent will likely develop more emotional and mental energy. This results in fruitful relations at home and work since children require attention and loving for an upright development. Work and family requires commitment and maintenance of equilibrium between the two. Creating more time for the job results to poor relationships between parents and their children. On the other hand, a poor working relationship is established at work due to limited time of association with colleagues. However, maintenance of a balance between official chores and family results to easier stress management and it prevents burnout when delivering services. An example of stress a family may experience is childlessness though they desire to have children (Holden, 2019). This prompts many parents to resolve to adopt children, which allows them to raise a child in need of a loving, stable home. However, parenting by adoption has challenges such as struggling with low esteem, identity issues, and feeling unsure where they ‘fit in.’
Adolescents may be forced into early parenting on some occasions. They plunge into parenthood unrehearsed for the stress that come with newborns, therefore, they encounter discouragements. Complications of pregnancy and poverty are among the challenges teenage parents face due to unplanned pregnancies (Walker & Holtfreter, 2021). An individual becomes a parent through siring or adopting a child. Transitioning into parents is difficult since individuals find it hard to adapt. Couples experience a wide range of fatigue-related stressors, new family demands, financial strain, work-family balance, and changes in roles. However, transitioning can be made easier by seeking advice from older successful parents. Once individuals become parents, their life changes forever in many significant ways. Goals and priorities change since the focus would be on the child; hence some of the set goals would be achieved later in life once the child has grown. The child becomes the priority and is constantly thought of by the parents to make children’s experiences better than theirs. Parents are often forced to make sacrifices and devote most of their time taking care of the newborn, reducing their sleeping hours, and developing patience.
Parenting styles influence the behavior of a child during their development. For instance, authoritative parenting involves establishing clear rules, high expectations, and a warm response and is associated with children with better social skills and increased self-esteem. Secondly, neglectful parenting has no rules, and parents are uninvolved, resulting in delinquency, suicides, and impulsive behavior for their children. On the other hand, authoritarian involves strict rules and unresponsiveness, resulting in low social esteem in children and poorer social skills (Schorr et al., 2020). Finally, permissive parenting involves indulgence, leniency, and few rules, resulting in impulsive behavior, egocentrism, and poor social skills.
There is a change in parenting behavior over the developmental stages. Parents provide love and total care for infants, teaching them how to conduct themselves and communicate. This stage requires a lot of devotion of time (Livingston, 2019). Guardians have reduced contact with their children during the schooling period since they learn a lot from the school; hence, their duty would be to guide their children. Once a child becomes adolescents, they feel the urge for autonomy; thus, their guardians have little influence in their decisions. The parents’ role as children transit into adulthood is to offer advice since adults do not depend entirely on them to make decisions for them.
When parents experience frequent conflicts, infidelity, domestic violence, poor communication, and lack of commitment, they may resolve to terminate the marriage through separation. The latter elicits emotions and feelings of loss, anger, anxiety, and confusion. Educational failure, early marriages, early sexual activity, and poverty are among the effects children may encounter due to divorce. The latter also affects children mentally leading to adoption to development of feelings of unworthiness and suicidal thoughts (Holden, 2019). Human beings are created with emotions; hence after spousal separation or the death of a spouse, they fall in love again and feel that finances are incompatible; hence they remarry. Marrying again provides physical and mental health benefits.
Biologically, men and women cannot sire children independently since mating is required for the process to be complete. Therefore, same-sex parenting is made possible by adopting children, surrogacy, and lesbians through artificial insemination. Children of such parents are likely to experience a mental breakdown, stress, and low self-esteem due to the ongoing discrimination. The kids encounters constant judgment form the individuals or other young ones who do not understand their guardian’s’ choices.
In conclusion, reflection is essential in learning and understanding new concepts. Time and conducive environment are among the factors which promote effective meditation. Throughout the semester, I have acquired a lot of information regarding parenting. Through the reflection, I understood the concepts extensively such as parenting styles, teen pregnancy, and transitioning into parenthood. I can apply what was taught and relate it with the current society.
References
Holden, G. W. (2019). Parenting: A dynamic perspective. Sage Publications.
Livingston, W. (2019). Reviews and reflection: Focusing In on critical parenting agendas. Practice, 31(5), 309-310. Web.
Schorr, E., Wade, S. L., Taylor, H. G., Stancin, T., & Yeates, K. O. (2020). Parenting styles as a predictor of long-term psychosocial outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in early childhood. Disability and Rehabilitation, 42(17), 2437-2443. Web.
Walker, D. A., & Holtfreter, K. (2021). Teen pregnancy, depression, and substance abuse: The conditioning effect of deviant peers. Deviant Behavior, 42(3), 297-312. Web.