Week Sixteen: Your Children

Your Child or Your Children is the topic of this week's prompts. Is there anything more amazing than becoming a parent? The responsibilities, the joys, the trials...probably few things create more significance--for better or worse--in our lives than that of the parent-child relationship, whether it is the one with our own parents or the one with our children.

If you are not a parent, you may wish to choose a person in your life that you may look upon as a surrogate child, whether a step-child, niece, nephew, cousin, or family friend. You may also wish to share about the choice--or lack of choice--involved in not having children and how that affects your life.

*How many children did you want to have? How many do you have?

*Did you have gender preferences (one boy and one girl, or all girls, etc.), and if so, why? What did you get?

*What are the names of your children? Who were they named for and why?

*When and where were each of them born?

*Did you adopt? Write about your adoption experience: how long you had to wait, which country you adopted from, open or closed adoption, etc.

*If you had biological children, was it difficult to conceive? If so, write about that experience.

*Share any stories you remember from the pregnancies of each child.

*Share the story of each child's birth.

*Write about anything significant that you remember from the different stages each child has gone through, such as infancy, toddlerhood, the first day of Kindergarten, elementary, middle or high school, college, marriage, being a parent themselves.

*Describe each child's personality, interests, and talents.

*Describe each child's features and build.

*Describe the relationship of each of your children to each other and to your spouse.

*Write down the wish you have for each child's future.

Add favorite photos of each of your children to your journal.

Our topic next week will be Your Pets.

Week One: What's In A Name?

Here is the topic for your first blog: Your Name. Here are some prompts to get you started. There are quite a few in this post, which won't always be the case. You don't have to answer every one!

*What was the name you were born with?

*Who gave you your name? Why?

*Were you named for someone? Who?

*Do you like your name? Why or why not?

*If you could change your name, what would it be, and why?

*If your name is different now from the name you were born with, what is it? What was the reason for the change (marriage, adoption, legal name change, etc.)

*Do you have a nickname? How did you get it?

*Do you have a baptismal, christening, or saint name?

*Do you know the meanings of all your names (first, middle, last)? (Go here for first and middle name meanings; then go here for last name meanings [enter last name, then choose "Name Meanings" from drop-down menu].)

*As an adult, how do you prefer to be addressed by others (Mr., Mrs., Ms.)? Are you comfortable with children addressing you by your first name?

*Is your name difficult to spell or pronounce? What are some of the more unusual mis-spellings or mis-pronunciations that you've endured?

The topic for our next post will be your birth date and location. Be sure to send me links to your blog! You can read my answers at my other blog, AnceStories (see link at right). Until next time...

Miriam