Demographics
The family I interviewed lives in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The parents have been married for eight years. The mother is 27 and the father is 39. The parents had three children together. All of the children were boys. Their ages were 17, 14, and 7. The oldest son and the youngest son live with the parents and the middle son lives with his real mother. The oldest son and middle son were from a previous marriage with the father. The youngest was the only child with both parents.
Relation to Class Material
Primary parenting functions has two broad categories which are structure and nurture (Bigner and Gerhardt 2014). Structure is the foundation that the parents laid for the children. Nurture is the unconditional love that the
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This family is a part of a blended family because the father remarried. The family had to overcome the complications with his first marriage because of the two older boys. The stepmother had a hard time with the boy’s mother and it was hard to become a stepmother. The stepmother never had children so she was unsure of having stepchildren. The reason for the couple to become parents to their third son was because the mother did not have any kids and she wanted one of her own. She wanted that feeling of unconditional love that mothers have for their children.
Relation to Family Systems Theory
In this theory there are four concepts which are; parenthood is a social construct, the relationship between parents and children is a subsystem of the larger social system that we call a family, parenting is bidirectional, and parenthood is a developmental role that can continue over the life span. First the role has a parent is to care for the children through valves, beliefs, norms, and behaviors. In the interview the parents taught the children this kind of things has the child aged. They taught norms and behaviors with some punishment which showed them what was acceptable and not acceptable. They taught valves and beliefs through letting the children
For Precious, I have used a Systems theory/ Family Systems approach to evaluate and summarize her needs and interventions. One of the crucial aspects that I have addressed is that being removed from the abusive environment is crucial for her and her two children. At the moment she is able to stay at a half-way house that can accommodate her and her children. She is able to also utilize childcare while she attends her alternative school. I have spoken with Precious, and she states that she wants to get her own place and raise her children. Being that she is 17, she is still considered a minor so we spoke about how certain obstacles may bar her from leasing an apartment right away. I have made a referral for her
The role of nurturing parents in a family is an important factor that helps in the growing of personal independence and is the basis for emotional stability.
After the father's death, the family was forced to be put on welfare. This was very hard for the kids and especially the mother to accept because they were use to the father being the provider, and it went against everything that they were taught by their father. They had welfare personnel coming by to check up on them very often. The mother felt so helpless and was unable to provide and care for the kids like she used to. It was even harder to try to discipline the kids without the father there to enforce the punishments.
In this first paragraph, the author battles with a commonly held belief that children are the “property” of their parents for a certain amount of time in their lives. The author constructs upon the topic slowly by disclosing his problem with the idea of children as property, only to bring his own life experiences into count by explaining his adolescence with a dysfunctional family. By bringing in his personal experiences, the author is in some sense considered an authority figure on the topic of a child’s life with a dysfunctional family. He compares the concept of parental custody with apprenticeship, and he puts it all together by creating a practical solution to the problem. His true thesis sentence is seen in the last paragraph where he says, “We have invested far too heavily in the unproved “equity” called the nuclear family; that stock is about to crash and we ought to being finding escape options” (p 196). By gradually giving the reader background info on the problems of the modern dysfunctional family, and then stating the thesis at the end, he very clearly gets his argument across.
The family structure is made up of individuals living together in intimate groups with the purpose of caring and supporting each other. Rules and boundaries, spoken and unspoken, are developed by the family members. Family rules and boundaries change and shift over time in order to evolve and grow as a family unit. Some changes are subtle, but some events force major change within the family system. This paper applies the concepts of systems theory to the family system in the movie Sweet Home Alabama. Reese Witherspoon (Melanie Smooter) and Josh Lucas (Jake Perry) star in this heart-warming film telling a story of a young woman who flees from Alabama to reinvent herself in New York City as a high fashion designer. She leaves behind her redneck husband and white-trash upbringing. Melanie finds herself engaged to the cities most eligible bachelor and has to return to Alabama to request a divorce from her first love and confront her past ("Alabama," 2002).
According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of parenting is of “the process of raising and educating a child from birth to adulthood.” Have you ever pondered on how different you would be if your parents would have raised you differently? Everyone was raised differently, therefore we all will be different types of parents. We may cherish the way our parents raised and disciplined us, so we’ll utilize those techniques when we become parents. On the other side, we may despise the way our parents raised and disciplined us, therefore we’ll create our own techniques based on what we would have preferred as a child when it comes to raising our children. As a 43 year old mother, I’m proud of the way my parents raised and disciplined me and I’m proud of the way I’ve raised my daughter, nieces and nephews. As a parent, I’ve constantly asked myself, “why is parenting so hard?” At one point in time, I wondered if a mother should automatically know how to handle and raise an infant, if this is her first child. There’s a conflict when it comes to parenting. There’s a significant difference between the biological needs of a child and cultural needs that have been placed by society. For starters, we cannot say that one particular way of parenting is “the right way”. Every parent should trust their techniques of parenting as the best as long as there is no abuse involved. Permissive parenting, Authoritarian parenting and authoritative parenting are the three main parenting styles. Each parenting style is different and produce different types of results. The next few paragraphs will give an overview of these techniques and we’ll be able to compare each.
There are four basic child-rearing style categories that parents will usually fall into. The first is the "Uninvolved" child-rearing style. The uninvolved parent is considered the worst type and is the most detrimental.
A parent’s parenting styles are as diverse as the world we live in today. Nowadays, parents only want what is best for their children and their parenting styles plays a crucial role in the development of children which will in the long run, not only effect the child’s childhood years, but later prolong into their adult life as well.
When looking at family systems, you must begin by looking at Murray Bowen’s family systems theory and “his views on the eight interlocking forces that shape family function,” (Haefner, 2014). Within Bowen’s family psychotherapy research, he noted that “family patterns and problems often repeat over generations, he also noted that families make up their own emotional systems, and within these systems they try to maintain stability and reduce conflict,” (Haefner, 2014). The eight interlocking forces noted by Bowen through (Haefner, 2014)
According to Richard Charles (2001) “the effectiveness of family systems theory rests not much on empirical research but on clinical reports of positive treatment outcomes, the personal benefits experienced by the families that underwent this kind of treatment, and the elegance of Bowen’s theory” (p. 279). Bowen’s family systems theory views the family as an emotional unit and is a theory of human behavior. Systems thinking are used to describe the complex interactions in the unit. However, the client’s ability to differentiate himself/herself from the family of origin is the basis for Bowen’s family systems theory. In addition, the primary focus for growth within the emotional system is differentiation of self. Differentiation of self will be explored as well as how it relates to a church congregation.
This essay addresses seeks to evaluates diverse parenting approach by a parent-child observation. From observing developmentally appropriate and inappropriate interactions with the parent and child, I will learn how parents teach, guide, and influence their children. First, I will briefly describe basic Information of the child and parent that I have observed. Next I will discuss the parent experience with transitioning to Parenthood. Throughout the essay, I will be discussing the parenting goals and beliefs, parenting challenges and reflecting on parenting from the parent perspectives. Lastly, I will discussing my observation from the parent and child interactions.
159). And in the case of family-development theory, the family is viewed through eight distinct, yet sequential stages which includes the premarital, marital dyad through to the retirement milestone. With this developmental theory, the family must succeed in achieving a significant benchmark before they can move onto the next level. For example, when a dyad gives birth to a child, they then move into the triad stage with the major task being that they will need to adjust to the new child before they can move onto the next stage as a completed family. Therefore, there are initiating events that move us into the next stages and major tasks to work through while in the varying
...actual outcome that the child will have in later years in life. Parents must be vigilant and cautious of their actions in front of children. Parents must maintain an active status in the child social and academic life, to be able to guide the child on the most correct manner as possible. No parent or teacher is perfect but as a parent of facilitator one must be open minded to negative development in any stage of life of a child.
Families make us who we are. From our families we learn communication skills, emotions and how to form relationships. Murray Bowen developed the Bowen family systems theory. The Bowen family systems theory provides the opportunity to learn about complex family relationships and emotional relationships. The Bowen family systems theory can be integrated with religion and spirituality. Everyone can relate the Bowen family systems theory. I can integrate my personal experiences with concepts from the Bowen family systems theory.
I began this program during the spring semester of 2014 at which time I enrolled in the working with family’s course. Unaware how much I would relate to the family systems theory in regards to my personal life. Moving forward I have been able to connect many situations during my practicum experience to this theory as well.