Families Within a Family

         

                         Families Within a Family

 

 

Marriage seems to have a huge impact on the actions of adolescents in today's day in age. As marriages seem to end in divorce young children grow up thinking that is the way of life. Growing up, marriages that don't seem to work out are all I have been subjected to. Having a healthy involved family to go home to has never been in the cards for me. 

             As I have grown up I have always been accustomed to endogamy. My parents stayed within their social class as they divorced and found new partners, and both of my dads underwent matrilocality. The chapter discusses micro level analysis and relating my story to that; as my parents searched for someone else to share their life with I did not get those opportunities to connect with my parents on a personal level until I was much older. 

            My evaluation of relationships has been affected by the relationships my parents have had that I have witnessed. The chapter discusses that within a marriage there are two relationships: a women’s marriage and a man’s marriage, which has affected the relationships between my parents.

I spent time adjusting to a new life with a second father, my step dad: who had no children and had no experience raising them. Marriage between my mom and step dad has given my sister and I material and emotional security.

As my dad began a relationship with a new women who also had kids, making us somewhat of an extended family. Bringing up the topic of a relationship consisting of two different relationships, his girlfriend thought of us as a family of affinity while my dad did not. 

The relationships my parents have created in my lifetime definitely prove that romantic love is not as important as social and economic consideration. This has also been shown through the fact that both of my parents have always worked outside of our household.

 http://www.popline.org/node/416851

http://www.apa.org/topics/divorce/