Personal Narrative: Single Parenting

Personally, I have much experience with the diverse topics and research on marriage and family relationships such as divorce, cheating, dating in my thirties, family dynamics, marriage, raising children, parenting, and blending families. Nearly ten years ago, I was unfortunate to learn that my husband, was having an affair which lead to the demise of my marriage and my family. I experienced firsthand the hardships and devastation that comes from broken families and the struggles associated with being a single parent. I was a young, broken woman who had to start a new life and find a path that would create stability for myself and my two young children. Looking back, at the time I thought getting divorced was the worst thing that could ever
happen to me, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. However, today I can see it was a blessing in disguise, because going through the ups and downs over the last ten years has made me a stronger women, mother and wife.
Forced into the role as a single parent, required me to self-reflect and learn to reshape my role as a women and mother, it was a long road but the struggles I experienced forced me to learn new parenting styles and redefine my role as a mother.
In addition, playing the roles of both father and mother allowed me to form strong relationships with my children and made me the strong confident women I am today. Nearly a year ago, I remarried so now I am experiencing the joys and struggles of blending two families together, it has been a challenge finding a healthy balance between playing the different roles of wife, mother and student. My personal experiences with marriage and family combined with my academic knowledge in family studies and psychology, has allowed me to redefine my sense of self as well as set new life and family goals, both helping shape my future career and future
self.
This content is relevant and important to me because despite having a strong foundation of knowledge about marriage and family topics, I am curious to learn new theories and topics that will help me strengthen my past knowledge, enriching the relationships in my personal and professional lives.
Over the last four years I have been taking classes in psychology, sociology, science and family studies, with the expectation that all the knowledge I have learned, has brought me one step closer to graduating with a degree in psychology, with the promise of having a rewarding career in social work. Last semester I took a class about family ethnic and cultural diversity, I found the class to be informative and the topics very interesting, therefore I chose to take this class because it is just another layer to learning new theories and topics in regards to how marriage and family dynamics are significantly diverse. This will only strengthen my own personal experiences and past knowledge helping me to be confident and opened minded with helping the diverse families I will meet from my career as a social
worker.