Creative Writing

I would like to invite my professor and my fellow classmates to my final post of the semester. You can go to http://www.tumblr.com/blog/jflannn1 to view the post. I would also like to thank everyone who has been posting every week and it has been a pleasure to read what you have to say. I hope all of your classes went well this semester and I hope you have a great summer.

Thank you!!

     Have you ever imagined something so much that you feel like its happening? I feel like I’m so passionate on what I would like my children to know that I sometimes forget I don’t even have any children yet. My parents gave me such a good childhood and it’s going to be hard to give my children a better one but I am going to try to. Throughout this “guidebook” that I would like to create and perfect, I am going to explain exactly what I would like my children to know. I’m going to be very specific with each rule or suggestion by offering a few illustrations with each one. These illustrations will include where this possibly could take place, who may be involved with this scenario and what you can do if you get into this situation. I want my children to be very aware of their surroundings at all times because this world is a scary place to live in. I believe it’s only getting worse from all the kidnappings and murders that go unsolved. My children will not be one of them. I may be a crazy overprotective mother when I become one but I would rather be that then have something horrible happen to my children. I want them to know right from wrong and to be able to tell me anything. My family is very open about everything and I think it’s extremely important to be able to tell each other anything. It builds relationships, keeps everyone safe and on the same page. I think by creating these guides or rules that I would like my children to know they will appreciate it a lot when they’re older and maybe even use them when they have children. I am extremely glad I decided to write about this for my final project because I feel like I really enjoy writing about it and I can’t get enough of it. I could write about so many things I would like my children to know, it’s crazy. In this guidebook I am just going to cover five rules I believe are important to me and maybe you'll feel the same way!

The First Rule

     The first rule is to not have technology until it is absolutely necessary. I believe that too many children and young adults are obsessed with technology. They’re constantly on their cell phone, a computer or anything that has to do with using technology. I have decided that when I’m older, I will not let my children use technology until they really need to. An example of when a person should absolutely need to use a computer is when they’re at school or at home working on school work. I believe this is the only time people absolutely need to use a computer because if you need to do research or need some information on a topic then you have to go on the internet and search your topic. A variety of people could be involved in this. From young children to older adults, everyone can overuse technology. If young children are always around it, then they won’t know any better. If an older adult is asked to use it for work or something important, they could get hooked on the wide spectrum of aspects one can search on a computer. It’s important though that more people use hands on devices to learn from rather than staring at a computer or cell phone screen for hours.

     You may ask what people may think about you if you don’t let your children have a computer, i-pad or a cell phone. They’re the weird ones though. They should be thinking more about their children’s social behaviors and interactions rather than just shutting them up and putting them in front of a computer or cell phone screen. I truly believe that if more people were to use less technology and more hands on learning experiences then children will only benefit and succeed more in that way. I would hope someone would demonstrate this and find out it does work.

The Second Rule

     Over the years I have found that having patience is very important. I hope to be able to teach my children to have patience no matter what situation they may be in. Throughout my high school years while playing softball I didn’t have very much patience. It was frustrating to be on a team where there was only a couple great players and then the rest weren’t so good. I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t pick up the concepts of hitting or throwing as easily as I could. Now that I have taken a year off of softball and I have been through a lot of life changing events, I seem to have a lot more patience.

     I started to play softball at Broome this year to have fun. That was my main goal. I think our team is better than my high school team was but there’s still a couple of girls who lack the talent that is expected of them. This doesn’t seem to bother me anymore. I am able to now understand that not everyone has had the same softball experiences as me. Not everyone has played travel softball for four years, which makes a dramatic difference. But yet, this still doesn’t bother me. I am just happy to be playing softball again and I just want to have fun. It doesn’t matter if we win or lose, what matters is that there’s no drama and everyone just gets along.

     I am hoping that my children will learn to have patience in the sports they play and the activities they decide to do. I also am going to give them as much experience within those sports as they want. They will be good at whatever they decide to do in life and they will need patience along that path. I am planning on being a good role model for them so they know what is expected of them. I think it’s a lot better to be patient in the obstacles you face because just being a hot head all your life will just make you look like an idiot. I have changed my way of thinking a lot since I have been out of high school and I think it will only make me better on my path to success.

     You will need patience in almost any situation you are faced with. Whether it's long lines at the grocery store or your boss isn't listening to you; patience will play a big role in the way you react in these different situations. Hopefully throughout the years you will learn that yelling or getting angry at something won't change the situation you're in and if you're just patient it won't stress you out as much as it used to. Anyone could get stressed out but if you have patience it will ease your mind a lot more. Having patience in very key in life.

The Third Rule

    I believe it’s very important for kids to be honest to their parents and their teachers. I can say I have told a couple lies to my teachers and definitely to my parents. I think it’s very hard for kids to resist lying because it just seems to be the easy way out. I hope to teach my children to be genuinely honest as much as they possibly can be because then they will be a lot less stressed out. They won’t have to remember what they told and who they told it to. If they just tell the truth then they will feel a lot better about themselves. I know whenever I used to lie I was always so stressed out and worried that the person I lied to would find out and would be mad or I would get in trouble. Telling a lie defiantly doesn’t usually end well and gets you into bad situations.

     I want my children to know that it’s important to tell the truth. A lot of people will remember you if you tell the truth and you will be trusted a lot more. If you lie it just causes problems with your family and friends. I hope I can show my children what it’s like to be honest and I will be a great example for them. A lot of people can tell a lie whether it's at their jobs, to their significant other about something they did wrong or to your friends. No matter who the lie is told to, it shouldn't be done. It's better to be completely honest with someone so it doesn't come around and hurt you.

     If you were to tell a lie in some desperate situation then you should, without a doubt, come clean about it. Whether it's within hours of telling the lie or a couple days it doesn't really matter. As long as you eventually tell the person that you're sorry and you come clean about what happened. Hopefully your children will never come into these situations but if they do it's important that you tell them what the right thing to do is in this situation. If no one ever teaches your children to be honest then what will they become throughout their lives? It probably won't be something you had imagined so it's better to just catch it early.

The Fourth Rule

    This isn’t really a rule for my children or something I would necessarily like to teach my children. I would like my children to have a wide variety of food in their diet. I know this is kind of random but when I was eating my dinner tonight I started thinking about all the different kinds of food I eat. I learned that I pretty much eat the same thing every week. It mainly consists of chicken, steak and pizza. It’s not exactly healthy but it’s what my mom either cooks or buys. When I become a mother I would like to cook a lot of different things for my family. I would like my children to not be picky with what they eat. It’s weird because my dad will eat just about anything whereas my mom is extremely picky with what she eats. You can definitely tell they were brought up a lot different. I don’t want to be the mom who forces their kids to eat their vegetables or fruits. I want to just start off by giving them a wide variety of different kinds of foods at a young age to try and get them to explore and maybe find something they enjoy that is healthy for them.

     Even though my mom is picky with what she eats, I think I’m more like my dad. I like a lot of different kinds of foods. I don’t like as much as my dad does but I like a lot more than my mom does. I am hoping that my husband will like to eat more healthy types of foods rather than junk food because that’s mainly what my mom eats. I know that if I feed my children healthy food all the time then they won’t know what it’s like to eat junk food. If I give them junk food all the time then that’s what they will insist on eating. Like I said I hope to definitely start my children out at a very young age feeding them what is best for them and keeping them healthy.  I think it will be extremely beneficial to them in the long run.

The Fifth and Last Rule

     Make sure your child treats everyone with respect no matter what. I want my children to know that it’s not okay to pick on other people even if they may be different from you. Today I was walking on campus from one of my classes to another when I noticed something was not right. There was this man in a wheelchair that was in sort of a corner by one of the buildings. There was also this other man that was standing next to him. When I first looked at them they seemed to look like they were just talking to one another. But as I got closer and looked at the man in the wheelchair, he had a distressed look on his face. He seemed to look upset and as I got closer to them I noticed the man standing was yelling at him. I wasn’t quite sure why and I didn’t want to seem creepy since I was looking at them for most of the time that I was walking. I heard one comment that the man standing up made to the man in the wheel chair just as I was about to go inside and he made some remark about how he couldn’t do something because he was in a wheelchair. This really bothered me but I was running late to class and didn’t have any time to say anything. I thought about it for the whole time I was in my class.

     I was so confused why the man standing up would ever say that. He could not even know how the other guy ended up in a wheelchair. He could have been in the army, he could have had cancer or he could have even been born like that. Who knows; but I do know it wasn’t right and I felt really bad about the situation. Too often people who are handicapped get laughed at or pointed at. What really bothers me is that it’s becoming the norm now and I can even say I have gotten caught up in it too. I’m not proud of it but so many people do it around you you almost forget. If there’s anything I would like my children to know is that it’s not right and they should be the ones sticking up for those people. Who cares if the “popular” people don’t like you. They will eventually get over it and they will be the ones to feel bad about it in the end. Not you. I want to be able to really teach my children right from wrong even if everyone else is doing the exact opposite. I look forward to helping them understand it and take on the world.

     People getting bullied could happen anywhere. It could happen at school, your work and pretty much anywhere where there are people. There also could be anyone involved in these scenarios. From younger kids to older adults. Some people just didn't have the proper guidance when they were younger so they don't know any better than being a bully to others. It's important for children to know that it's not okay to bully other children or people who are disabled or even if they're just like them. They are people in the end and they have feelings too. You need to make it a clear point to your children so that they know what's right and then they will have the proper guidance. I think this is becoming an extremely large problem now a days but it can be handled properly if you catch them early.

     With all these different rules or guidelines that I have given, I hope that you find this to be very beneficial for not only you but your children as well. I think it's very important to start your children off at young age with doing the right things in life. If you catch them early on then they won't know any different from that. I would like to think that these rules will help you guide your children on the right path in life and will help them be very successful. Thank you for your time with reading all this and I wish you the best of luck!

     Have you ever imagined something so much that you feel like its happening? I feel like I'm so passionate on what I would like my children to know that I sometimes forget I don't even have any children yet. My parents gave me such a good childhood and it's going to be hard to give my children a better one but I am going to try to. Throughout this "guidebook" that I would like to create and perfect, I am going to explain exactly what I would like my children to know. I'm going to be very specific with each rule or suggestion by offering a few illustrations with each one. These illustrations will include where this possibly could take place, who may be involved with this scenario and what you can do if you get into this situation. I want my children to be very aware of their surroundings at all times because this world is a scary place to live in. I believe it's only getting worse from all the kidnappings and murders that go unsolved. My children will not be one of them. I may be a crazy overprotective mother when I become one but I would rather be that then have something horrible happen to my children. I want them to know right from wrong and to be able to tell me anything. My family is very open about everything and I think it's extremely important to be able to tell each other anything. It's builds relationships, keeps everyone safe and on the same page. I think by creating these guides or rules that I would like my children to know they will appreciate it a lot when they're older and maybe even use them when they have children. I am extremely glad I decided to write about this for my final project because I feel like I really enjoy writing about it and I can't get enough of it. I could write about so many things I would like my children to know, it's crazy. I'm really looking forward to seeing how my final post will come out next week.

~Keep posted.

     This week we were asked to look at all of our posts so far and see what common themes we may see. Before you asked us to try and build up for our final work I tended to write a lot about the weather and my pets. I think I wrote about the weather a lot because it can change so quickly in Binghamton and I find it absolutely insane. I think I wrote about my dogs and animals in general because they mean a lot to me. My pets are like another person living in my house. They're my family and I care about them a lot.

     When you asked us to think about something we could build up on and do our final project on I was thinking about what I really care about. Then I started to think about how my parents raised me and what type of mother I would like to be when I get older. So I decided to write a guide book for my children and explain the different ways I would like them to behave or the different traits I would like to teach them. I thought writing this guide book would not only help me think about what I would like to be like as a mother but maybe it would teach me some things I should maybe do differently in my life right now. For example, the rule I had for last week was to make sure my children have a variety of foods in their diet. I could take this advice as well because I try different types of foods but I probably could try more. I hope I can get my children trying different types of foods though because I don't want them to be picky.

     With this guide book coming together every week, I think it's a good reminder to me what I really want out of motherhood. I sometimes can expect a lot and it may show through with the rules I have explained but I'm hoping it will only benefit my children in the long run. I plan to keep writing these rules every week and to get into more detail with each example. I want my guide book to be one that could be on the shelves in a store where people would think my ideas were brilliant ones. I hope that the final work will be as good as I am imagining it to be.