Interview With Father

For this paper, I decided to interview my aunt Christine and my uncle John Barry who are related to me through my mom. My aunt and uncle have been married for 5,335 days or about 14 years and 6 months and they have two children. They identified how their first year of marriage ‘was full of change’ as they were not only trying to manage a household and learn how to live together, but they had their first child, Sean, in their first year. When my aunt and uncle were preparing for their second child, they remembered the primary factors that helped them raise their first. They recalled how the hardest part of raising a child was finding a cohesive balanced between nurturing, guiding, providing, and letting the child take their own strides in life.

My aunt and uncle state that it can cause stress in their family when determining what is acceptable for their child to see based upon their current age. The responsibilities of parenthood increase as children get older, to which my aunt and uncle attest to where their own lives revolve around their children's’ activities. Likewise, finding some time alone as a family is difficult when the children have a busy schedule that conflicts with the adults’ own schedule. Most notably, my aunt and uncle stated, “In the end, your child will not remember the latest and greatest thing you bought them. The love you have for them will stay with them always, that is the one piece they will carry with them long after you are gone.” Just as many successful marriages may acclaim to communication as a main component in marriage, my aunt and uncle worked through disagreements by talking it out. They were, and are, always sure to be respectful of each other’s opinions while trying to arrive upon a compromise ‘in the middle.’ The assured me it wasn’t easy but was vital to help the family grow

Finances would occasionally cause disagreements between by aunt and uncle especially when there was a lack of communication prior to their purchases. Through learned experience and respect for one another, they refer to each other prior to making larger purchases in order to reduce the stress it would have on their lives. As my aunt and uncle put it, “marriage is a compromise without compromising yourself. Communicate, communicate, communicate.” From this interview with my aunt and uncle I certainly appreciate their sage advice when it comes to the difficult times in a marriage. I learned how one person in a relationship should not necessarily change for one another but rather they both should learn to be willing to work together. As two separate people, it is almost impossible for someone to be able to readjust themselves to a completely different person when it’s not how they should be defined