1. What did you learn about the challenges any new parent faces with a new born?
“I Am Sam” is a beautiful movie. It shows how a parent face challenges of raising child/children, but what makes it different is that the parent is mentally challenged, or what many would like to call straight away as mentally retarded.
I have learned that it will never be easy to become a parent, whether you are very smart or not properly educated, whether you are thinking straight or not. I think, though, that it will be love that will change it all and keep everyone intact.
Babies cry most of the time. Since people become new parent when a child is born, they will not know how to comfort a child until they get used to it. They will always think at the beginning “Oh, what is it? Are you hungry? Did you poop? What’s the matter? Does it hurt somewhere?”
Challenges are unavoidable and it doesn’t just end there. There will come a time that parents will experience financial crisis or if not, the inability to work properly because they have to bring the child to work when no one will be able to take care of it at home.
As shown in the movie, a new parent may also encounter scenarios wherein friends get mad because he forgot that they have a movie night on Thursday, for example.
Furthermore, if people find you incapable of raising the child properly, they take him/her away from you and find someone else to adopt the child. It hurts when someone and something yours is taken away. In the case of Sam, it seemed that he didn’t have the chance to get Lucy back. But nevertheless, he did all his best because he is her father and he is firm about that because she is his daughter. What joy it brought him when in the end, they were together again.
Despite of all of that, even though there are many challenges, I believe that becoming a parent is something to be proud of. The feeling is very different, overwhelming. It is an achievement, most especially when you see them succeed in life.
2. How does Sam cope with his new responsibilities as a parent?
Like everybody else, Sam seeks out help. He is smart but he cannot do things on his own most of the time most especially now that he is a parent. He was able to cope with his new responsibilities with the help of his neighbour Annie. She gives Sam advice whenever there are problems.
Sometimes, it’s his friends who help him in taking care of Lucy. They come over to Sam’s place and play with her. There were also times that the group contributes money when Sam can’t afford something, like when he was buying shoes for Lucy.
His employers helped him in his work at Starbucks first where he got a promotion, then at Pizza Hut where the owner agreed to testify for him.
3. What qualities does he possess? What does he lack?
Sam Dawson, as a mentally retarded person, possesses the characteristic of being able to take care of people and things that are his. He cherishes them. At work, he wants everything in order. He is capable of love, in reaching out to other people as he did with his lawyer Rita.
“I have had a lot of time to think about what it is that makes somebody a good parent. It’s about constancy, and it’s about patience, it’s about listening, and it’s about pretending to listen even when can’t listen anymore. It’s about love... I’m not a perfect parent and sometimes I don’t have enough patience and I forget that he is just a kid. But we built a life together and we love each other and if you destroy that, it will be irreparable.”
However, capable as a 7 year old child is, he doesn’t know what to do on his own. He cannot read. Sometimes he cannot control his emotions most especially if it is negative, more so when he is overwhelmed, either by happiness or sadness or anger. He is sensitive to negativity and that is what triggers the previous statement. He doesn’t also know how to differentiate good people with hooker.
“I Am Sam” is a beautiful movie. It shows how a parent face challenges of raising child/children, but what makes it different is that the parent is mentally challenged, or what many would like to call straight away as mentally retarded.
I have learned that it will never be easy to become a parent, whether you are very smart or not properly educated, whether you are thinking straight or not. I think, though, that it will be love that will change it all and keep everyone intact.
Babies cry most of the time. Since people become new parent when a child is born, they will not know how to comfort a child until they get used to it. They will always think at the beginning “Oh, what is it? Are you hungry? Did you poop? What’s the matter? Does it hurt somewhere?”
Challenges are unavoidable and it doesn’t just end there. There will come a time that parents will experience financial crisis or if not, the inability to work properly because they have to bring the child to work when no one will be able to take care of it at home.
As shown in the movie, a new parent may also encounter scenarios wherein friends get mad because he forgot that they have a movie night on Thursday, for example.
Furthermore, if people find you incapable of raising the child properly, they take him/her away from you and find someone else to adopt the child. It hurts when someone and something yours is taken away. In the case of Sam, it seemed that he didn’t have the chance to get Lucy back. But nevertheless, he did all his best because he is her father and he is firm about that because she is his daughter. What joy it brought him when in the end, they were together again.
Despite of all of that, even though there are many challenges, I believe that becoming a parent is something to be proud of. The feeling is very different, overwhelming. It is an achievement, most especially when you see them succeed in life.
2. How does Sam cope with his new responsibilities as a parent?
Like everybody else, Sam seeks out help. He is smart but he cannot do things on his own most of the time most especially now that he is a parent. He was able to cope with his new responsibilities with the help of his neighbour Annie. She gives Sam advice whenever there are problems.
Sometimes, it’s his friends who help him in taking care of Lucy. They come over to Sam’s place and play with her. There were also times that the group contributes money when Sam can’t afford something, like when he was buying shoes for Lucy.
His employers helped him in his work at Starbucks first where he got a promotion, then at Pizza Hut where the owner agreed to testify for him.
3. What qualities does he possess? What does he lack?
Sam Dawson, as a mentally retarded person, possesses the characteristic of being able to take care of people and things that are his. He cherishes them. At work, he wants everything in order. He is capable of love, in reaching out to other people as he did with his lawyer Rita.
“I have had a lot of time to think about what it is that makes somebody a good parent. It’s about constancy, and it’s about patience, it’s about listening, and it’s about pretending to listen even when can’t listen anymore. It’s about love... I’m not a perfect parent and sometimes I don’t have enough patience and I forget that he is just a kid. But we built a life together and we love each other and if you destroy that, it will be irreparable.”
However, capable as a 7 year old child is, he doesn’t know what to do on his own. He cannot read. Sometimes he cannot control his emotions most especially if it is negative, more so when he is overwhelmed, either by happiness or sadness or anger. He is sensitive to negativity and that is what triggers the previous statement. He doesn’t also know how to differentiate good people with hooker.
