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Family Reflection Paper

Satisfactory Essays

My family continues to deal with these vertical and horizontal stressors today. As a family, we are consumed with blaming someone for the issues that cause weak points in the family. In my opinion, we do not have complete balance in the family. We talk about the nurturing that is missing and the loss of identity from the original members of the family. The loss of the patriarch in the family creates a sense of not being whole. My understanding of the family cycle stages has allowed me to better understand my position and movement within my family and in isolation of the whole family system. I understand that strength is gained from different family situations. My family has a big celebration every year on my grandparent’s anniversary to …show more content…

Then there is the parental subsystem, which consisted of the parents and the children. In this system, my mother would limit and regulate the information that my sibling and I received from outside influences. My mother’s role was to protect her children to the best of her ability. I guess that’s the reason she was so strict with me as her first born. The restriction that was placed upon me by my mother made me rebellious, which, in turn, caused me to be emotionally cut-off and isolated in my room. For example, I was not allowed to hang out with friends due to my mother’s work schedule, and friends were not allowed to come over when she was not home. I would admit she was very stern with all of the rules and things in life that I wanted to experience. As my sibling got older, these rules were less important to my mother and she did not enforce them as much. In my opinion, I felt like there were no consistency between the parental system and the children because the same rules did not apply to my sisters and brother. I felt like I was treated differently and my punishments were harsher. Moreover, I was a parentified child, and this role affected the relationship between me and my brother. He perceived me as being bossy and always telling him what to do. The parentified role placed me in a hard role in the sibling subsystem as well.
There were many rules, beliefs, rituals, and myths in my family. Rules can be spoken or unspoken, and they are governed by the older

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