Back in February, Texas experienced a severe snow storm. My parents were without power and water for over a week. Due to the snow fall, I couldn’t travel to bring supplies. My only contact was though phone and internet.
1. What were your motives for helping this person?
I wanted to provide my parents with support and resources during the storm.
2. Did you benefit from this relationship in any
way? How?
I felt better about myself as a helper and as an adult daughter. I hope it strengthened our relationship.
3. What was your role in the helping relationship?
In what way do you think you helped this person? Looking back, is there
anything that you might have done differently?
Although I couldn’t be there in person, my role to was help where I could. I checked on them daily and used the internet to locate resources. For example, I found which stores were still open, what businesses were handing out free bottled water and supplies, and even found through Facebook that their church was a ‘warming station’ for their community.
Looking back, I may have taken one step too far. Their community is quite small. After close to a week without water, I reached out and left a message with their city hall stating how important it was to get the pipes repaired as there are many elderly people in the community. Apparently, the city secretary called my mother personally, reported my message, and stated the city was working on it. My mother felt I had gone too far. I should have called and told her what I was planning do. I could have respected her wishes or just waited a few days before calling the city.
4. Was there anything that this person did, said,
or believed that you did not agree with? How did you react?
I wished my parents had accepted more resources. They
felt more fortunate than others and did not want to accept some of the free
supplies. They’ve given so much to their city over the years and I thought they
deserved assistance. However, I accepted it was their choice to decline.
5. Did you learn anything from this relationship?
It reminded me to be more careful about how people
want to be helped. I do know my parents were appreciative, but I think my
mother saw my style, at times, a bit too aggressive. A few weeks later she made
a passing comment- “You were being a social worker and I just needed my
daughter.” Touché.