Responsive Relationships with Families: What Professional Love Looks Like
Carol Garboden Murray speaks to professional love where families feel admiration, gratitude and connection to educators who love their children deeply. Small and responsive moments can significantly affect an educator's relationship with families and their children. I have felt what a triangle of professional love feels like between families, their children and myself as the educator (Page & Elfer, 2013). When families describe you as an extension of their family, share the joyous news of newborn baby guinea pigs, celebrate birthdays, invite you for meals at their homes, and be there with them through times of triumph and struggle are examples of this relationship. A child in the program went for emergency surgery and was gone from the centre for many weeks. To show this family we cared, putting together a basket came to mind. I bought a stuffed kitten, a copy of the book Guess How Much I Love You , and painted the child a personalized peg doll. The children in the program m...
