Discussion #6

This week we are learning about household dynamics and how these are shaped by culture. For your discussion, consider how your culture has (and is) shaped your own family — either as a child or in your own households today. Select one aspect of your life you feel comfortable sharing and analyze it through an anthropological lens.

Your post must be 400 words in length. Next, respond to two peers in a 200 word minimum post.

Response#1
Ashlyn Briggs
Feb 10 9:25pm

Reply from Ashlyn Briggs
I grew up in a nuclear family household. It consisted of my mother, father, older sister, and I. A nuclear family is quite common in my culture (American culture) but is honestly pretty common in a lot of cultures. Both my mother and father grew up in nuclear family households as well, and so on in our generations of family. Although, there were a few years in my life, when I was in the third grade my dad had moved in with his parents, so then it was my granny, pawpaw, dad, sister, and I all living in the same house. This did not last very long, after a few short years my parents moved back in together, my grandparents moved out, and it was back to a nuclear family household. Both my mother and dad worked full time as I was growing up, and my grandma (mom’s mom) and granny (father’s mom) were my sister and I’s babysitter while they worked. My sister and I spent a lot of time with our grandparents as we grew up, especially with them being our babysitters. At one point in my life, we lived next door to my grandma, and we would see her every day, sometimes multiple times a day. Our grandparents are awfully close to my sister and I. Eventually my parents got divorced and we no longer had a nuclear family household.

I do not have many cousins, and those I have live far away, the closest being Portland and the farthest being Texas. Due to not growing up around many cousins, the kids my sister and I did grow up around were all the neighborhood children around my grandma’s house. We built close relationships with those kids and their families that we still have with them today. My sister and I have a very close relationship right now, she is pretty much my best friend, and I would absolutely say that has a lot to do with the fact that we grew up together, close in age, and without cousins and other family (other than grandparents) around all the time. We had a lot of time to bond as we got older, and it has led to our close relationship to this day.

Eventually my dad got re-married, and I then lived with my dad, stepmom, stepbrother, and sister. My stepmom has a lot of family and cousins that live out of town, and locally. Family holidays began looking different as there were now more family members that were coming. It took time to adjust to having more family around, and having step-cousins that were close to my age. But it was also a fun adjustment, I had more people to hang out with other than my sister, and growing up in a small town, I had even gone to school with a few of them. Although I did not get to grow up and be raised around cousins and family my own age, I am still great full I got to experience it a little bit once I was a teenager. Family is a huge thing, and plays an important role in shaping who you are today.

Response #2
Mackenzie Gibson
Feb 9 1:03pm
Last reply Feb 10 8:30pm

Reply from Mackenzie Gibson
Household dynamics play a huge role in any home or family. When I was a child the role was my mom did all the housework. She cleaned the home, made meals, and also had lunches packed for my dad. She stayed home and took care of my sister and I. She would help us with our homework, make sure our school clothes were set out for the next day and make sure we got to the sports we played every day. My dad had a full time career. He worked for the military so his day consisted of waking up at 4am to do pt and ending his day around 5pm. Most weeks he would work Monday through Friday. Some occasions he would have to work a “24 hour” day. A 24 hour day was exactly how it sounds, he would have to stay up and be at work for 24 hours to watch the towers. He tried to be home whenever he was able to. It was definitely hard when he got deployed to other countries. Most of them ranged from 8-14 months at a time. Not much changed at our house when he got deployed other than not seeing him. My mom was still around and did everything she needed to do. While this worked for them growing up I have chose to go a different route for my future.
I currently work a full time job and my furniture goal is to be a nurse. I like to work and be out of the house. Sadly that doesn’t work for most people due to child care but as of right now I don’t have to worry about that. When I do plan on expanding my family I hope I am still able to work 2-3 days out of the week. With society now a days it is so hard to live in, and it’s almost impossible to only have one person in the household working. I had an apartment by myself for a year and was working 60 hour weeks to just afford my bills. I was still barley making it by and most nights eating top ramen and leftovers for dinner. Hopefully it will soon be possible to be able to live in a one person income house, or make child care more affordable so each home can choose to do what’s best for their family.