Argument

Paternity leave.

            If you would get paid time off work you would take it, wouldn’t you? When given the chance at work men should take the paternity leave. “Paternity leave is the time a father takes off work at the birth or adoption of a child (babycenter)”. Paternity leave is becoming a huge thing to do in the United States. More and more men are taking this leave every day. “Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passed in 1993, employees—both men and women—are entitled to 12 weeks unpaid leave around the time of the birth of a child, as long as they work in firms with at least 50 employees, and meet minimum tenure and working hour requirements (maternity paternity)”.  There are three major reasons to take paternity leave and those are to benefit the mother, father and the baby, it shouldn’t be up to the mother to do it all and it is important bonding time with the new baby.

            First and foremost, paternity leave is extremely beneficial for the father, mother and the baby. When you are home with the baby and the mom needs a nap, it is beneficial to both of you, mom gets rest and you get time with the baby by yourself. It also helps the mom, it provides you with an extra set of hands around the house. Clothes, dishes and diapers will be piling up. With this set of hands it will cause less stress on the both of you. Not only less stress, but your relationship with one another will not be as stressful when the dad is around helping you with tasks. With less stress the happier everyone will be, including the baby. If you are always yelling at each other the baby will hear that and be fussy cause of the parents’ actions. No fussy baby is a good baby. You will know everything that you need to know when you are home. You will know the sleeping habits, what they like to eat and how they play. It will be beneficial to you to know these small but huge details. A babysitter needs to know those important details along with grandparents and friends. Also when the child is older and they are looking back on things and ask you when and what age they did these things, you will know. You will know this because you were home on paternity leave with the baby.

            In addition, the fathers need to spend bonding time with the new baby. "I truly believe there's a bonding aspect to this. If you're there every day, you're bonding as much with the child as the mom (FamilyEducation)”. Family bonding time is something you will remember for the rest of your life, something you won’t forget. It’s just as important for a father to bond with the baby as the mother. If you don’t bond with the baby right away it will be much harder in the further to connect with the child. The more you are there in the beginning the easier it will be in the long run. You will then know what the baby does, how they act and what to do to control them. The more you bond with the baby the more that baby knows you. They will get used to you, know your smell, and recognize your face and your voice. The baby will be all smiles when you are around since they will know who you are. Bonding time is the most important time you can have.  That is why taking the paternity leave is so important when given the opportunity too. The baby might not remember the bonding time as an infant, but you sure will remember.

            Lastly, it should not be up to the mother to take on all the work. It did take both two people to make a baby, so why only have one person take care of the baby. It can be dangerous when there is only one person taking care of a baby. I say this because being a new mom is emotionally and physically exhausting. You will not get all the rest you need to properly function right, with this being said the father should be there to help. With the father home from paternity leave the mom can then take a 30 minute nap without worrying if the baby is up or if the baby is crying. It goes either way, if the father takes care of the baby and is exhausting then the mom can watch the baby while the father does whatever. Haven’t you ever heard the saying the more the merrier? In this case this is true. The more people you have to help you out the better. It would not be fair to the baby if the father did not pitch in. If the mother does all the work when the child is a newborn how will it be when they are a toddler, teenager or even an adult? They will not be as involved in that child’s life as they should.

                        Don’t pass up something when you are given the chance to take it. Don’t pass up valuable time you can’t get back. Spend every moment you can with your family and your children. So take the paternity leave when offered. If you don’t take it I have a feeling this is something you would regret later down the road. Why miss out on something that you don’t have to? You wouldn’t want to miss your child’s first word, walk and first smile. Don’t miss this opportunity when it’s available. Take the load and stress of the new mom and help her out, it’s not up to her to do it all. Bonding is very important at an early age so bond with your child every chance you get. Also, it is very beneficial for the father, mother and the baby. Don’t miss the chance to do these things. Before you know it, it could be too late.

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

""Choosing" Work over Baby: The Reality of Parental Leave in the United States | BlogHer."       BlogHer Editors. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013

 

"Dads and Paternity Leave." - FamilyEducation.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

 

"Family Leave & Paid Sick Days." — IWPR. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

Analysis

Remember the Titans

 

You have got to learn how to respect and get along with others but in order to do that you have to respect yourself first. Remember the Titans is an all-time favorite movie of mine, and very well could be yours too. There are so many messages in this movie that the director is delivering to the audience. There are two messages in the movie that stuck out to me and those are segregation and how the community and football team had to overcome it, and how to learn and give respect to one another. It was a long and hard journey for this group of people, as I am sure it was for everyone. In this movie there is a segregated high school. Then times were changing and it was not segregated anymore. The kids at the high school, the parents, and the community were so upset by this. The football team had been having practice before school started and that’s where the real test was at. The football team became a white and black playing team. None of the boys knew how to go around this and get along with each other. In this movie it shows the struggles and triumphs of how they overcame this. In the end everything works out for everyone, but getting there was a rough and tough time.

Respecting yourself and others will get you far in life. This takes people many years to learn, but once you have learned this it comes natural to you. “People say that it can't work, black and white. Here, we make it work every day. We still have our disagreements, of course, but before we reach for hate, always, always, we remember the Titans (Yakin. DVD.).” Respecting yourself and others was extremely hard when the segregation was coming to an end. No one wanted to do anything to respect each other so instead of saying nice things they would say terrible things to each other, then that would cause a fight. In this movie it all started when the football team got a new head coach, Coach Boone and he was colored. The last coach was white and so were the football players. Of course the players and the parents were more than upset to find out that a colored man was going to be coaching the football team and that colored men were also going to be playing this game with them. This caused so much tension between everyone. When they had to go to football camp that was their first true test. They were at camp for two weeks and had to room with their assigned bus buddies; one white person per one colored person. This pushed everyone’s button. When they first got there they hated one another. With respect and getting to know each other they soon became one big family. They learned respect for each other by bonding with one another and sharing the love for football. When respect is earned it is given. That is what everyone did and when they learned that’s all they needed to play better as a team and better as a family.

            Getting along with others is something you learn at an early age. Doing this is hard to do especially when you have different views about things, how you grew up, what time period you grew up in and whether or not you like that person. We all have to grow up at some point and put those reasons behind you to get along with others. “Yeah. I hope you boys have learned as much from me this year as I've learned from you. You've taught this city how to trust the soul of a man rather than the look of him. And I guess it's about time I joined the club (Yakin DVD)”. When you get along with others you also learn things from them. You cannot pick a fight with anyone and everyone you see, so it’s better to get along with them. In Remember the Titans no one got along with each other until they learned that they had to. You have to be willing to get to know somebody in order to actually get to know them. No one was willing to get to know each other; they just wanted to bash on one another. Coach Boone was the one who made them get along though. When he did this it caused the team so much tension because they were not willing to do this. They white boys did not want to nor care to get along with their teammates because they were colored. They worked on that the whole season and overcame it eventually. They worked with each other and got to know everyone and even their families and how they grew up. To me I think this is when it was an eye opener for everyone on the team, and they realized they were the same people trying to achieve the same goal- being the best that they can be both on and off the field.

            Growing up I learned how to give and earn respect at an early age. That was one thing my parents drilled into my head as a child. They always told me I will go far in life if I do this everywhere I go. And that is exactly what I had done. These boys in the movie finally figured out that when you give respect you get it back and it is much easier to get along with each other by doing so. When the boys figured this out it made them play football as a team and not trying to play it by themselves.

            Overall, respect and segregation are two very important things learned in life. Without them the world would be a very difficult place to live in. That is why this movie is such a good movie to watch. It shows you the importance of getting along with each other, respecting them and how to get along with people of different race. If you haven’t already seen Remember the Titans, I suggest you watch it. You won’t regret it.

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Remember the Titans. Dir. Boaz Yakin. Perf. Denzel Washington and Will Patton. Walt Disney                 Pictures, 2000. DVD.

 

 

Response

                                                                     Education.

I believe in learning. I believe in reading. I believe in writing. I believe in science, math and social studies. I believe in education. Education helps people achieve goals and dreams they have always wanted. Education gets you anywhere you want to go in life. I believe education is the key to life.

            Education comes in so many ways. It’s up to you on how you learn. There are so many influences on education. It could be money issues, culture situations, your ability to want to learn and your beliefs. Those are just a few of those influences. To me none of these influences should stop you from learning and trying to get the best education you can get. Never stop trying to achieve your goal, no matter what it is.

            Money issues is a huge factor in getting an education. Even while you are still in high school it costs a lot of money to attend. If your family is having a hard time with money it should not get to you and in the way of you wanting to learn. Now, while in college that’s when the real problem occurs. You may very well might have to help out your parents with funding for college or you may even have to pay for it yourself. I know it is hard and will always be hard. Just keep in mind it is worth it and don’t forget it.  In the end it will be worth this stress. Either way you have to come to school and come with a positive attitude and wanting to learn. I believe college is the kicker to the start of your well educated life.

            I understand that in some cultures and beliefs you can only go to school until an acceptable age. This is a bummer to those who want to go further and learn new things. There is a way to go around this. One way is to read anything, any books, magazines anything you can find and read it. You will more than likely find new words you have never heard of before. See you probably just learned a new word by reading a new book. You never stop learning.  Before long you will be able to read words you could not before. You learn by doing. Another way to further your education is to move when you are old enough to do so. In parts of the country you stop learning at an early age and just work for the rest of your life. If you are tired of this and education has always been a goal of yours, move. It would probably be the toughest thing you have ever done, but in the end it will benefit you in only good ways- supporting yourself, having the dream job and enjoying what you do. Don’t stop doing something in your life just because something gets in the way. Find a way to get over that obstacle and do it.

            Your ability to want to learn will determine on what you will achieve in your life. If you do not want to learn you simply won’t learn. You cannot make yourself do something that you would not want to do. That is perfectly fine do it. If that is what your dream is then you make that a goal for you. I believe that your ability to learn is what will make you successful. If you want to learn you will do anything and everything that you possibly can to make sure you know everything you can know. For instance if you are going to college and are majoring in Veterinary science you will go to the library look at books, go shadow at multiple veterinary offices and study as much as you feel you need to. You can never stop learning. It is a great thing. Believe it or not you learn something new every day. You learn this from people you just met, family or even your best friend.  You should always want to learn. It will make you a better person, you will have more knowledge and it will even make you feel better knowing that you know something most people probably do not know.

            Let’s take a minute and imagine life without education. The world would be a crazy place. Crazier than it is today. I feel without education we would be working in a factory our whole lives because to do factory work it is routine not something where you have to be learning something new. Or we wouldn’t even have jobs. We would not be living like we do today. We would not know what to do with ourselves because that would be all we are used to. There would be no reading, writing, signs going down the road because we would not be able to understand what it means. There would be no TV, radio and no government. We would not be able to understand anything let alone each other. The world would be crazy. It’s a scary thought to think if we did not have education. Honestly I have no idea how the world would function today. I don’t even know if it would function. It would be so hard to do anything. For example If you go somewhere and you do not have education and the door says pull and you don’t know what that means you would probably stand there for 5 minutes trying to get into the door of somewhere. Little things like that would be impossible to accomplish without education.

            To some people may not think education is important. They may think they just don’t need it at all. To me I believe that is the key to success, having a good life and achieving all that you want to. I believe in doing everything in your power to get as educated as you can get. That’s why I believe in learning. I believe in reading. I believe in writing. I believe in science, math and social studies. I believe in education.

Narrative

 

The C Word.

 

It was August 8^th 2010, my dad’s 43^rd birthday when our lives changed forever.it was like any other birthday. We had cake, ice cream, and even sang happy birthday to him except it was utterly quiet this year, other than the “Happy Birthday’s” and singing. Later as the day went by, my mom looked at my sister and I and said, “We need to talk.” that is when I knew something was wrong.

In the room sat my mom, dad, sister, I and our pet dog Bernie. Everyone was staring at each other blankly, not saying a word. Finally I asked “What is going on?” my mom responded, “Well, your dad and I went to the doctors today.”                

“Oh I didn’t know you had an appointment today?” I said confusingly.

“Well, last week when we were on vacation your mom found a lump in her breast.” Dad said weakly.

I knew where this conservation was going and I didn’t want to know the outcome, even though I had a feeling what it was going to be. Everything from then on out just came in one ear and out the other. I could not fathom the idea that this would ever happen to my family. What did we do to deserve this? What did she ever do to deserve this? I could not think of the answer.

It was confirmed that my mom had breast cancer. There are four stages of cancer and she was already at stage 3. At this point in time that was all we knew. I could not ask any more questions. I had a lump in my throat the size of a baseball. For the first time in my life I was speechless. All 4 of us were.

Later on in the day I finally came to the real world again. We all sat down just like before and we talked about what she was going to do. That was then when she informed us that she was going to have a double mastectomy. A mastectomy means removing both breasts and also removing the cancer. To get rid of the cancer she was going to have chemotherapy once a week for 4 months. After all of that was taken care of, she then would get breast implants. That was then when we learned it was more than we bargained for.

Everything that could have went wrong, did go wrong. Every surgery something went wrong. For example, she got a chemotherapy port put into her chest, which is a device that goes under your skin so the medicine can get into your bloodstream without needing to get poked with needles every time you have a treatment. Her first chemo appointment, her port somehow did not connect up with the machine. There goes another unnecessary surgery. Then, when she got her breasts removed, they took her stomach fat and transported it into one of her breasts. That got infected within the first 48 hours. She then had to go into surgery the next day to have the infection drained. It should have been avoided in the first place. The doctors and the nurses should have caught that when they were checking her every hour; they didn’t. We kept thinking “Oh my God, what else could possibly go wrong?”

Over thanksgiving break is when everything took a turn for the worse. Her implants got infected once again. I went and visited her in the hospital every day. I kept thinking to myself that this may very be the last time I ever get to see her. She just laid in bed, looking weak, fragile, she looked 80 years old when she just turned 40. The person laying there was not my mom. I would talk then she would respond, but with only one or two word answers. It took all she had in her just to say those few words. In between, my questions and her answers I could her hear her breathe heavily. I watched the monitors and examined her heart rate, hoping it didn’t drop down too low, l couldn’t have watched that. When I left after visiting her I remember walking through the parking garage bawling my eyes out. I was always thinking the worst. And so far the worst has happened in my eyes.

Finally, our prayers have been answered; the last surgery worked. None of us could believe it had worked. She was able to come home a couple days after her last surgery. We knew it was going to be tough taking care of someone who physically wasn’t capable of doing anything for themselves; showering, getting dressed and who can’t feed themselves. We didn’t care we were just happy to have her home.

To this day my mom is a 3 year breast cancer survivor. We are so happy she beat the big “C” word. She goes for checkups every 6 months to make sure the cancer hasn’t come back. She just had to last checkup last month and the result for cancer came back negative. We pray every day it will never come back and attack her again. This tragedy made us as a family get along much better, spend a lot more time with each other, and live life like there is no tomorrow.

Welcome

Hey my name is Megan. The purpose of me writing this to for my English class! This is my first year at CSCC! I am going to school to become a Dental Hygienist. Right now I work as a orthodontic assistant. I am a certified dental assistant for the state of Ohio. I currently still live at home with my parents and sister. I plan on staying there until I graduate school. As exciting as starting school is I will also be the first one in my family to attend college!