Analysis Of My Family

“Families come in all shapes and sizes. Regardless of the configuration, the one universal descriptor is that families are diverse in nature” (Mark Hanson 43). While many people assume that western Americanized families lack a culture, my family’s characteristics, beliefs, heritage and values still differentiate amongst other cultures and add to our diverse community and world. My immediate family consists of four persons – my mother, Geraldine, who is fifty-eight, my father James, who is sixty-one, my older brother Patrick who is twenty-three, and I being twenty. My brother and myself are third generation American-Citizens. We live in the same exact house in Somerville, Ma that my great-grandparent’s, on my mother 's side, built when arriving

The marital subsystem between my parents in many ways is “fluid” (Eleanor Lynch 79) and overlap with the parental subsystem, as well as the sibling subsystem. My parents have always included their decisions, even financial ones, with my brother and I. We always evaluate big “life-altering” decisions together, which I think really allows children growing up to feel a sense of belonging and responsibility – choices allow independence. The interactions between my parental subsystems with my parents differ from that with my sibling’s subsystem with my parents. My parents are much more trusting of my input and output I think due to my ongoing dedication to education, work, and responsibilities, where as my brother’s choice as an adult to drop out of college really disappointed them. Even though I am the youngest, I am trusted with more responsibilities than my brother. The subsystem with my brother and I is very different since I trust and value my brother’s opinions more than my parents do because I believe education can be reached in different settings, not just in a classroom. I respect his different ideas, beliefs and customs and together we try and introduce my parents to new ideas, cultures and food, breaking them from safety zones and their Irish-American, Catholic subsystems they are use to growing up

I would say economic support is one of the easiest family functions in my family for my brother and I, for my mom and dad are very driven and work hard to live a pleasant lifestyle. They own a single-family house, two cars and even a cottage down the cape. Furthermore, my parents instilled in us that working is important, therefore my brother and I have been working since the legal age in order to support ourselves and to create independence. While we each live off our own salaries, it a blessing to know my parent’s can always support me and my brother if ever needed. Because working has always been a theme in my family, and while the time and effort to fulfill this function is hard work physically and mentally, working is expected of us and looked at as a blessing, for many people struggle to get jobs, rather than a stressful task. I particularly love my job working for my local recreation where I am a supervisor In planning and teaching programs for kids ages 2-13, as well as a daycare provider and in that sense, I am very fortunate, and blessed, to have the economic support from myself and my family. Another function that is very important to my family, but at times has been hard to fulfill would be love and affection. Mental depression, addictions and illnesses run in my family and at times affection and love was absent. I always knew that my parents