The Start of a Relationship

I first started to think about blogging when our two boys were young. The idea would float around in my mind as I spent time playing with the kids in the yard, watching them learn new things, and yes, even disciplining them. I wanted to write a parenting blog to share my experiences and help others navigate the journey of raising kids. As the years passed though, I started moving away from the ‘raising kids’ idea and started thinking about life’s relationships.

While my children are one of the most important parts of my life, so are my husband, my parents, and my close relatives. They all help to make up who I am and are part of this adventure of life. Maybe I’m showing my age, but I started reflecting on the friends I’ve encountered over the years, those that are lifelong friends as well as those who impacted my life for a very short time. A younger me moved almost every year or two. (My mother once made the comment that she had to put my address in pencil in her address book.) With every move came new friends, new experiences and new relationships. As I recently changed jobs (my mini mid-life crisis), I started to reflect on my past jobs and the relationships I developed with my co-workers and bosses. Each of these relationships, and many others, affected my life and helped me to grow as a person. I believe that no matter how much life changes in music, fashion, technology, and careers, our relationships in general have not changed. We share similar relationships (spouses, kids, friends, co-workers, etc.). We enjoy them, struggle through them, and learn from them. While the situations my grandparents may have encountered were different than mine, they still had to relate to one another, their children, and their friends, very much the same as I do today. The more I contemplated relationships, the more I knew I wanted to write about them.

Two individuals played a part in encouraging me to start this blog, even if they don’t realize it. Rather than harping on our 13 year old son to quit filling his head with “useless sports statistics,” I started encouraging him to start a sports blog (http://www.astheclockrunsdown.blogspot.com). He’s a great writer, loves watching ESPN and reading Sports Illustrated, and can remember information like a computer. By encouraging him to start a blog, I realized we could experience this journey together, something I love doing with my kids. The other person who influenced me to start a blog was one of my oldest (not in age), dearest friends from elementary school who has started her own blog (http://hatofmanycolors.wordpress.com/2013/01/). In her first blog post, she mentions reading a tweet that writers should first write for themselves, then for others. I realized all along I had been trying to decide what to write to help others and not for me. While I am not a psychologist, nor claim to be an expert on relationships, I like to talk about them. I also thought it would be a legacy to leave for my children to refer to as they struggle with relational issues throughout their lives. Thus Relationally Yours began.