“What Does Family Mean To You?” Chances Are Everyone Has

No matter what background you come from or how you were raised, family is extremely important. According to Malinowski, “Family is a necessary institution for fulfilling the task of child rearing in society”(Conley, 2013). Society has come a long way when it comes to family and it is much different than it was in the 1950’s. Not all families are nuclear families. A nuclear family is having a mother, father, and children that are all biological (Conley, 2013). This kind of family is what some would call more “traditional.” Today in the twenty first century it is getting harder and harder to find families that have actually stayed together. There are so many different kinds of families in today’s society, and more and more families are becoming blended families. A blended family is when two families come together (Conley, 2013). Many families today have single mons, single, dads, and even same sex parents. Family is not always the people that live in the same house as you, family also consists of extended family. An extended family is a network that goes beyond the main “nuclear” family (Conley,

Families, as units, are extremely complex and vary drastically from one another. A person might be under the impression that his or her own family is nothing special, especially if they are accustomed to their family’s routines. After analyzing my own family through the sociological lenses of an assortment of scholars, it is now clear that it is not as simple as it seems. Sociologically analyzing my family through the divorces that have occurred in my life makes it clear that divorce can have an impact on a variety of family dynamics, such as my parents and their jobs and domestic duties, the amount of involvement they have with their friends and family, as well as my financial dependence on my parents.

First, according to Macionis (2004) the term family is defined as a social institution found in all societies that unite people in cooperative groups to oversee the bearing and raising of children. Same author also discusses several theoretical approaches have been identified that identifies the family as a form of social institution and how the family unit interconnect with other social institutions within any given society. According to the Structural-Functional Analysis for example, the family serves as a unit that perform many vital tasks

Furthermore, in 2007 a research was administered by Kathleen Gerson, writer of the American Prospect, based on the question of unsuccessful relationships as a result of poor nurturing through their childhood. She states that “young workers today grew up in rapidly changing times: They watched women march into the workplace and adults develop a wide range of alternatives to traditional marriage.” In other words, Gerson is explaining that due to the change in families, many children can administer a misconception of what relationships are composed of, concluding why their relationships are different than previous generations. This generation grew up in a completely different aspect when women’s rights were already given and male dominance was slowly vanishing. However, since this was a social time change for many, gender roles in the relationships differentiated between families, some decided to remain in traditional-like relationships, while others went to have their own directed relationships but because divorce was no longer unacceptable, many ended in divorce. Having parents as idols and creating their own perspective on relationships, children learned a lot from simple observations. For example as children grow up living with parents in an unhealthy relationship, as they reach a stage to date, they will initiate that all relationships are similar and will believe that-that is the correct way to behave in their own relationship since it’s what they were accustomed to. This

Every family is different and the same in their own way. Everyone functions with different roles and plays a part in how it functions on the day to day. While some people don’t put much thought into it, Dr. Murray Bowen has. ‘Dr. Murray Bowen suggests that individuals cannot be understood in isolation from one another, but rather as part of their family.’ (GenoPro) Eight concepts are

Being married to one person for over twenty years is treated as a rare occurrence, something that has been rumored to be possible but is largely thought to be unattainable. Being in a relationship used to be seen as a prelude to marriage, and marriage itself had a certain sanctity that was protected by society in general. On the other hand, relationships can mean a number of things today. Two people will enter into a relationship because they are insecure, to avoid loneliness, to rebound from a previous relationship, or to simply enjoy the companion without any consideration of the future; beginning a relationship with the hope that it will lead to marriage is extremely uncommon. “[I]n earlier days going steady had been more like the old-fashioned 'keeping steady company.' It was a step along the path to marriage, even if many steady couples parted company before they reached the altar. By the early 1950s, going steady had acquired a totally different meaning. It was no longer the way a marriageable couple signaled their deepening intentions. Instead, going steady was something twelve-year-olds could do, and something most fifteen-year-olds did do. Few steady couples expected to marry each other, but for the duration of the relationship, acted as if they were married. Going steady had become a sort of play-marriage, a mimicry of actual marriage. (Bailey p.

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.”

A family is the single most influential factor in the life of an individual. Being in a family brings with it support, relationships, connections, and love that is rarely found anywhere else in a person’s life. However, families are not all the same. Each individual family structure is unique when compared to the next. When looked at from a general perspective there are two main groups of which families fall into.

Family is a core plot device in many texts, in particular the relationship between the protagonist and their family. In the texts Darkly Dreaming Dexter and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time the reader can see a clear relationship between the two. Through defining what constitutes family, the importance of family in teaching societal norms and the impact of family withholding the truth, a clear comparison can be found within both of the texts. Before instigating the role family has in shaping an individual it is crucial to first define what constitutes a family. Traditionally a “family includes a married father and mother and kids -- either biological or adopted” (Hater: 2014)

the use of the family in society and how it can take pressure from the

Families have been an important social construct since the first humans decided it was a good idea to create some sort of order in their lives. Families are still as important as in those times, as we see them as recurring symbols in all forms of media. From movies to books, we see different kinds of families, and a multitude of strains put on families, although in almost every example, family triumphs over the odds. Unless a good portion of the members of the family are dead. Due to a bomb. I digress.

My parents first met through my great grandfather on my dad’s side, he went and picked my mother up to go swimming. My mother did not like my father at first, and they had a big age difference so my father left for four years until she turned 18 and then he came back to her and married her. My mother says that the characteristics that made her want to commit to him was his humor, love, and trust/commitment that he proved to her. My Father says that the characteristics that made him want to commit to her would be her looks, personality, and her respect for herself and choice to remain celibate till marriage. One way that the family norms have changed from their younger days would be that they used to go out with friend all the time and live a life that involved drinking and drugs. My parents now live a life that involves activities for the children and church. Another way that my parent’s family norms have changed would be that they travel more now than they used to when they were younger. The last family norm they can think of that has changed would be going from a small family of two, to a large family of eight fairly quickly, by adopting six other children.

When comparing people and especially generations, love is carried out in many different fashions. My mother wasn’t allowed to start dating until she was 17 years old. She had the ability to do activities with a group of friends with boys present, when she was 16 years old. This is a similarity in our dating, I was also not allowed to date until I was 17 years old. One of the most notable differences in dating, would be the parental role in theirs child’s social life. When I asked my mother what her parents’ role was while she dated she said, “My parents were very involved and educated about all of my relationships.” This is very different from the most recent generations. It is very common for a teenager to have a relationship and

A family is the most important part of being social and in this essay I will demonstrate how this is an important socialization agent. Families have changed over the course of years from traditional to nontraditional and with this people have suffered due to this change. During this chapter I have learned how important it is to focus on the primary structure of family. Family shows how important it is to work hard and achieve goals that are dignified in today’s society. So during this paper I will try to demonstrate some of these important techniques.

Despite the confusion disruption experienced by the different generation, most families are able to redefine their relationships.