MY SUPPORTS

My Supports:

Within my daily environment my supports are my children, my husband, my computer, public transportation, and my assistant teacher.

Let’s start with my children: I have 7 children but only 3 left at home. There is a significant age gap between the oldest and the youngest. When we relocated we did not take into consideration the higher cost for child care. My oldest child at home watches her 6 year old sister so that I can work and do homework. Without this support I would not be able to take classes and making ends meet would be very difficult because of the cost of child care. I pay her $200.00 per month and the school wanted $700.00 per month for before and after school care. My children also do chores and maintain a clean and orderly house while my husband and I work to provide for the family. Without this support my home would be in chaos.

My husband: My husband supports me by listening to me vent about things I cannot change or offering suggestions on how to change things I have control over in my daily life. We work as a team to support our children financially, physically and emotionally. Without this support I would function but my level of function would be much lower. We balance each other out and keep each other going. He is my emotional support.

My computer: My computer and I have a love hate relationship. All of my work for both work and school is done on my computer. I keep records and attendance, I do my planning and anecdotal note taking all on the computer. I keep in communication with my older children who are all over the United States and my other family members on the computer. Without the support of my computer I would need much more planning time and would have to be in classes where I physically had to attend. With my schedule this is impossible so I would not be able to continue my education. I would not have been able to relocate to further my career without my computer either. My computer allows me to have daily contact with all my children and this is important to me emotionally. Wow, until I typed this I did not realize how much I depend on my computer.

Public Transportation: We currently have one vehicle so one of my supports is public transportation. I have to ride the bus home from work. Without public transportation I would not be able to work where I do because it would take too long to bike or walk to work. This would affect our entire household because our income would be severely decreased.

My Assistant Teacher: My assistant helps in every aspect of my job. When there is a child who needs extra emotional support she helps with the other children while I support that child. If a child has an accident she is right there to support them and me either with cleaning up or helping with the other children while I clean up. During every part of every school day my assistant is like my right hand. Without her my job would be very difficult if not impossible.

The challenge I chose to imagine was speaking a different language other than English. I see this challenge on a daily basis and it is frustrating for parents and children. Some supports that I would need when faced with this challenge is a community of people who spoke my language and English so they could help with translation. Materials translated in my language. Places to work that spoke my language or did not require communication. All of the supports I currently have would be necessary. My family, my husband, my computer. Too often we take for granted all of the support we have in our day to day lives until it is gone. I would not want to function without all of the supports I currently have and after listing them I have a new understanding of people who have less supports and face more challenges.