Impact of Children on Committed Relationships
Impact of Children on Committed Relationships
Christina Smith
Everest University Online
Most of the time, children have a great impact on a relationship. Before children, couples usually tend to spend a lot of time together and have more energy and money (Wood, 2010). Once children turn the relationship into a family, couples have less time together along with less energy and money (Wood, 2010). Our communications go from long and stimulating conversations about anything and everything to mostly about the children. We all know that becoming a parent is hard, but until we do, we never realize exactly how hard it really is (Wood, 2010). I interviewed five parents, two of them being a married couple, on how becoming parents impacted their relationships. The rest of this paper focuses on how these parents feel their children have impacted their relationships and how their communication is with each other. With every family, the impacts of children on a relationship are different. People expect different changes, while other changes are not so expected. My friends, Brad and Morgan, have been married for almost three years. When I asked them what changes they experienced that was least expected they had different answers. Brad told me that his least expected change was that he “went from being someone who has never been around too many children, and not really a ‘kid’ person, to loving and playing with a child and it making you feel so good just to make them smile, and the warmth in your heart when they look at you with their arms open saying ‘Da Da’ (B. Worley, personal communication, January 9, 2012).” Morgan said that her least expected change was that she became a lot more emotional than she was before (personal communication, January 9, 2012). When talking about this, she told me about an experience that she had that made her realize this. She related “I went to a graduation ceremony shortly after my son was born and I cried thinking about HIS graduation!
Christina Smith
Everest University Online
Most of the time, children have a great impact on a relationship. Before children, couples usually tend to spend a lot of time together and have more energy and money (Wood, 2010). Once children turn the relationship into a family, couples have less time together along with less energy and money (Wood, 2010). Our communications go from long and stimulating conversations about anything and everything to mostly about the children. We all know that becoming a parent is hard, but until we do, we never realize exactly how hard it really is (Wood, 2010). I interviewed five parents, two of them being a married couple, on how becoming parents impacted their relationships. The rest of this paper focuses on how these parents feel their children have impacted their relationships and how their communication is with each other. With every family, the impacts of children on a relationship are different. People expect different changes, while other changes are not so expected. My friends, Brad and Morgan, have been married for almost three years. When I asked them what changes they experienced that was least expected they had different answers. Brad told me that his least expected change was that he “went from being someone who has never been around too many children, and not really a ‘kid’ person, to loving and playing with a child and it making you feel so good just to make them smile, and the warmth in your heart when they look at you with their arms open saying ‘Da Da’ (B. Worley, personal communication, January 9, 2012).” Morgan said that her least expected change was that she became a lot more emotional than she was before (personal communication, January 9, 2012). When talking about this, she told me about an experience that she had that made her realize this. She related “I went to a graduation ceremony shortly after my son was born and I cried thinking about HIS graduation!
References: Wood, J. T. (2010). Interpersonal communication everyday encounters (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.