life story preparation

[Tula22]

Good morning everyone

We are just starting stage two, and we have been asked to (start) write our life story.

My question is, could you lovely people give me some ideas where to actually start, and what sort of things need to put into this life story?

Thanks in advance for any help, I wont be able to reply till this evening though as work calls today

Everything ha ha!
We were given a set of headings that helped break it down a bit - I'd be surprised if you didn't get something similar. Basically start at the beginning for each of you - your childhoods, any siblings you have and your relationship with them as a child, how your parents treated you, their values etc. Move on to how you feel as an adult about your childhood, siblings, parents, your education, work life etc. Then, when you have each covered your individual backgrounds work together on something about your relationship - how you met, how your relationship works ie. do you share roles, is one of you stronger at difficult times, are there things in your past where you have proved you support each other well? What are your faults/weaknesses - how do you handle these? If you have pets how do they fit in?!
I think we had sections on quite random things like 'the unwritten rules of our house' ie. "we mostly eat at the table but sometimes have tea on trays watching tv. We don't mind if people take their shoes on or off when visiting" etc. These may seem really odd things to share but I think did help round out who we are - we might assume that everyone shares our values etc. but it isn't always the case. There was a section on faith/spirituality as well. I think our final document was over 24000 words but don't panic about that too much at this stage - its a little by little process and will gradually build up over the weekly visits. Good luck!

Thankyou bookworm
You were write we did get a list of headings and the social worker went through them with us so much easier.
We went through upbringings this time and she said we would go through all the other things you have mentioned at other meetings.

OMG at you saying . I think our final document was over 24000 words that is a lot of work. my head hurts thinking about it all lol.
I'm sure all these hoops are well worth jumping through in the end.

Thank you again for all your help.
and for you

Wow, our documents were not so big.

I think we both wrote one called something like 'Family of origin, including siblings and other significant family members and significant others'. Mine was just over 1,200 words. It was followed up by a longer one called something like 'Significant people in my adult life' I also did a shorter one on day to day stuff called something like 'A day in the life of Italiangreyhound!' About 1,000 words. So mine was about 3,500 and Dh's probably half that.

If in doubt write lots and whittle it down if it needs to be shorter. The social worker should be able to advise how long it might be expected to be.

Good luck.