Role Of Communication In Families

When a couple becomes parents for the first time, there are many issues that might need to be negotiated, for example, how the couple decides they want to raise their children. Society as a whole is made up of many different family dynamics so it is important that a mother and father have the same ideas about how they are going to raise their own children. A couple may need to determine how many children they are going to have, what their names are going to be, if they are going to send them to public school or private school, along with many other decisions. These decisions can cause problems if each parent has their own views on how their children should be raised and each one conflicts with the other. It is important that couples establish some sort of guidelines before they marry and have children together but although some guidelines might be established, they can change over time. For example, if a soon-to-be mother decides at first that she wants to be a house wife and stay home with her children, by the time the children come are born, if she changes her mind and decides that she actually wants …show more content…
Sometimes in families it may be important to set aside time to discuss these roles in order to sustain a fair balance. For example, “couples who take time to debrief and share work experiences greatly increase their relational satisfaction” (Family Communication, 173). Considering how communication plays a large role in determining how the family roles will be carried out, Fitzpatrick and Richie came up with four types of families that function on the basis of communication; they are consensual, pluralistic, protective, and laissez-faire. They say, “this typology recognizes that families can function well with different types of behaviors and that there is not just one functional way to communicate” (Family Communication,