Family, a familiar term that can be defined in various ways. Some may define family as a group of people who are related to each other by blood, others as people who care one another. The traditional definition of family is a intimate group of two or more people who live together in a committed relationship, care for one another and any children, and share activities and close ties. I would define a family as a group of two or more people who share an emotional bond with one another, by blood or not.
I will discuss my family of origin and my fictive kin. I have a single parent family; my father is a provider but does not live in the household. My family consists of my mother and my three siblings. My eldest sibling is a twenty-three year old …show more content…
This theory focuses on different stages families go through in the family life cycle. Stages that are defined by age of children and level of involvement of adults in the work force. The life cycle in this theory begins with marriage, birth of children, continues till children leave home, retirement, and ends with death of one or both spouses. One of the issues with the development theory is it only focuses on traditional families, a household with two parents and their biological children. Divorced, gay and lesbian, or single parent families like mine do not fit the stages of this theory; my parents were not married when they had their children. My mother’s second child was the first to leave for college and her first child is still home with her. Another issue is it ignores sibling relationships. Age difference between children plays a major role in how their relationship will work out. My siblings and I are two years apart and we had good relationships, but there were a lot of ups and downs. Some negatives about being close to age are attention and competition. We were constantly fighting for my mother’s attention, we all wanted to be the “star” child but she constantly reminded us that we were all loved equally. We made everything a competition in our family. In school, we all competed to see who would get the best grades, awards, and good reports. At home, to see who cleaned better, who was better
I will discuss my family of origin and my fictive kin. I have a single parent family; my father is a provider but does not live in the household. My family consists of my mother and my three siblings. My eldest sibling is a twenty-three year old …show more content…
This theory focuses on different stages families go through in the family life cycle. Stages that are defined by age of children and level of involvement of adults in the work force. The life cycle in this theory begins with marriage, birth of children, continues till children leave home, retirement, and ends with death of one or both spouses. One of the issues with the development theory is it only focuses on traditional families, a household with two parents and their biological children. Divorced, gay and lesbian, or single parent families like mine do not fit the stages of this theory; my parents were not married when they had their children. My mother’s second child was the first to leave for college and her first child is still home with her. Another issue is it ignores sibling relationships. Age difference between children plays a major role in how their relationship will work out. My siblings and I are two years apart and we had good relationships, but there were a lot of ups and downs. Some negatives about being close to age are attention and competition. We were constantly fighting for my mother’s attention, we all wanted to be the “star” child but she constantly reminded us that we were all loved equally. We made everything a competition in our family. In school, we all competed to see who would get the best grades, awards, and good reports. At home, to see who cleaned better, who was better