The Family Development theory supports the idea that family life is divided into phases (normative changes) associated with each stage of development. It attempts to understand the changes in the family structure and how families adapt as life progresses. The Human Life Cycle is a series of life stages that are defined by certain developmental changes occurring in each. It consists of eight stages: infancy (0-2 years), early childhood (2-6 years), middle childhood (7-12 years), adolescence (13-21 years), early adulthood (22-34 years), middle adulthood (35-60 years), late middle age (60-70 years), and late adulthood (75 years and older) (Welch 56-57).
A non-normative event occurs when something happens in life that is unexpected or out of the …show more content…
I had no parents left – no one to take care of me. I remember feeling very uncomfortable because after my he passed, I began to feel like I had no real home. Home is not a place; but, rather, a family. My family life did not only get upturned, but also completely destroyed. I had relatives, but no core family. It is a very unsettling realization and it dashes any hope of a normal family life, at least in the near future. Because I had already experienced my mother passing away a few years prior, I had started to build up a wall around myself and allow very few people to get close to me. Once my dad died, this only got worse. I refused any type of connection with people in fear that they would leave me without me being okay with it. To this day, this is still something I struggle with. It was – and still is - very hard for me to allow myself to be close to someone because I’m always afraid that they will leave my life before I’m ready to say goodbye. I have never been able to fully rid myself of this unfortunate habit. My family mostly just tried to move on, and live their own lives as best they could without their son/brother. It seemed to be a lot easier for them since they were all adults with established …show more content…
So, I hope – if this ever happens to someone in my family – that I can adapt to the changes in an entirely different way. I realize the way that helped me heal isn’t really something I can hope to replicate since it was so unconventional. I would hope to create a similar outcome in a different way. I think what would have helped me would have been having a strong support system. I would instead attempt to pull everyone closer together to overcome whatever happened. I believe that communication and unconditional love is one of the best ways to adapt to major changes. I would also try to seek professional help from a therapist if anything else failed, which was something my family ignored because they did not believe in therapy. Overall, I would hope to deal with any non-normative events in a completely different way than my family
A non-normative event occurs when something happens in life that is unexpected or out of the …show more content…
I had no parents left – no one to take care of me. I remember feeling very uncomfortable because after my he passed, I began to feel like I had no real home. Home is not a place; but, rather, a family. My family life did not only get upturned, but also completely destroyed. I had relatives, but no core family. It is a very unsettling realization and it dashes any hope of a normal family life, at least in the near future. Because I had already experienced my mother passing away a few years prior, I had started to build up a wall around myself and allow very few people to get close to me. Once my dad died, this only got worse. I refused any type of connection with people in fear that they would leave me without me being okay with it. To this day, this is still something I struggle with. It was – and still is - very hard for me to allow myself to be close to someone because I’m always afraid that they will leave my life before I’m ready to say goodbye. I have never been able to fully rid myself of this unfortunate habit. My family mostly just tried to move on, and live their own lives as best they could without their son/brother. It seemed to be a lot easier for them since they were all adults with established …show more content…
So, I hope – if this ever happens to someone in my family – that I can adapt to the changes in an entirely different way. I realize the way that helped me heal isn’t really something I can hope to replicate since it was so unconventional. I would hope to create a similar outcome in a different way. I think what would have helped me would have been having a strong support system. I would instead attempt to pull everyone closer together to overcome whatever happened. I believe that communication and unconditional love is one of the best ways to adapt to major changes. I would also try to seek professional help from a therapist if anything else failed, which was something my family ignored because they did not believe in therapy. Overall, I would hope to deal with any non-normative events in a completely different way than my family