One issue impacting young children and their families that fuels my passion for the field, is the issue of parents lacking support as their child's first teacher. I've come across family after family that is taken aback by my referring to them as the first teacher. So many parents take on the responsibility of parenthood, but are seldom given clear, useful help in regards to understand what that role really means. Rather than focusing on the things that parents can use to occupy or teach their child, we should be teaching them and pushing the understanding that their relationship is most important.
I find that even though I find I constantly build new relationships across the field wth professionals and families alike, I am most grateful for my most reliable resource: my mother. My entire life, my mother had served as not only a mother to her children, but a caregiver to her older brother, and a shining example of advocacy in action. She always worked to inspire my siblings and me to find the joy in dedicating our time to helping other. Later in her life, my mom tackled the incredible feat of completing her Masters of Social Work, and later became a mobile response counselor for local children and families. As she, too, is fairly new to her field, she and I are always talking through possible solutions to our challenges, sharing our most thrilling discoveries, and seeking professional advice. It's been an inspiring experience to ease into the understanding of the social work field through someone I trust tremendously. I've been given many opportunities to understand the value of cross-profession collaboration in order to tackle the same goals.
In order to be a more effective advocate, I would like to gain greater experience in identifying specific issues to tackle, rather than over-arching problems. I find that I struggle to set realistic goals because of this; I often struggle to hone in and focus on the small pieces as opposed to the complete product.
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