The Importance of Marriage and the Family The human race depends on reproduction. We must reproduce or we will become extinct. That is, we will cease to exist. Some will argue that reproduction is our main purpose, our main job in life. At one time, the American Dream was simply to secure a decent job, marry, buy a home in the suburbs, and raise a handful of children. I was born in 1965, by the time I was in my teens, in the early 1980’s, that had somehow changed. I don’t recall dreaming of my wedding day and envisioning a home with a white picket fence. I was an individualist, I was making decisions that concerned myself. You see, I didn’t come from a traditional family. I was a victim of divorce and parental alienation (PA) at the
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I was raised in the midst of mental illness and alcoholism. I felt abandoned by my mother and was suddenly a member of a new family that I never felt I quite belonged in. Both my father and my step-mother not only worked, but had careers. This meant they were gone long hours (my father insisted on having a few drinks every day after work) and ultimately I was left, at a very young age (12), to look after my younger brother in a home where I was the only one present most of the time. No, I didn’t dream of my wedding day. I dreamed of getting myself the hell out of there. I have made a lot of mistakes along the way. I cannot tell you how many times, during this course, I thought to myself: “If I had only had this information back then, how different my life might have been.” In this paper, I will attempt to identify and elaborate the different areas of my life that …show more content…
Known as the “looking-glass self,” this is an aspect of the Symbolic Interaction Framework Theory for viewing marriage and the family. “Similarly, family members constantly hold up social mirrors for one another into which the respective members look for definitions of self” (Knox & Schacht, 2016). I was trying to mirror my father’s definition of who I should be, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy (p. 28). According to the Gender Roles Index Scale, I have more traditional gender role attitudes (Macionis, 2016). I never received the go-ahead to take on the more traditional gender role of just being a good wife and mother. After all, I had to be
I was raised in the midst of mental illness and alcoholism. I felt abandoned by my mother and was suddenly a member of a new family that I never felt I quite belonged in. Both my father and my step-mother not only worked, but had careers. This meant they were gone long hours (my father insisted on having a few drinks every day after work) and ultimately I was left, at a very young age (12), to look after my younger brother in a home where I was the only one present most of the time. No, I didn’t dream of my wedding day. I dreamed of getting myself the hell out of there. I have made a lot of mistakes along the way. I cannot tell you how many times, during this course, I thought to myself: “If I had only had this information back then, how different my life might have been.” In this paper, I will attempt to identify and elaborate the different areas of my life that …show more content…
Known as the “looking-glass self,” this is an aspect of the Symbolic Interaction Framework Theory for viewing marriage and the family. “Similarly, family members constantly hold up social mirrors for one another into which the respective members look for definitions of self” (Knox & Schacht, 2016). I was trying to mirror my father’s definition of who I should be, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy (p. 28). According to the Gender Roles Index Scale, I have more traditional gender role attitudes (Macionis, 2016). I never received the go-ahead to take on the more traditional gender role of just being a good wife and mother. After all, I had to be