Family: My Family Is An Average American Family

In today’s society, my family would be considered an average American family. Our house is very mediocre with brown bricks and a white fence surrounding our backyard. We are located in a small town called New Lenox, which is in southern Illinois. My parents were not connected through either of their families; they first locked eyes on the Metra train while commuting to work. In that day and age, there was no such thing that either of them was required to do to get connected to each other’s families. As we talked about in class, brides and grooms had to give certain services and money in order to gain good relationships with each other. Now, they have been together for a little over twenty-four years with three daughters and a dog. Amira, my

My previous neighbors that moved from Texas lived with their extended family. They lived in a patrilocal family structure. Everything was surrounded by the grandfather, father, and uncles. They were the only people in my neighborhood that I knew of that lived with extended family. Since they were not from around the Chicago area, I understood that their culture and norms were different than what I was used to. The closest thing to a patrilocal or matrilocal family structure that relates to me is that my grandparents live in surrounding suburbs. Since most of them do not live out of state we have frequent visits with them over the holidays and special

Being in a bilineal family has allowed us to be a part of both my mother’s side and my father’s side. My family does not favor either side more than the other because if we were to do that tensions would arise. Even though we have my father’s last name, we still recognize ourselves with my mother’s family line too. To be fair in all that we do my family likes to split up the holidays between both sides of the extended family in order to make everyone happy. We spend Thanksgiving and Easter lunch with my mother’s parents and dinner with my father’s parents. Christmas Eve is with my mother’s side and Christmas day is with my fathers. New Year’s Eve is just with my immediate family but for New Year’s Day we spend the day at both of my grandparent’s houses. For the Fourth of July and other small holiday’s we spend them with my mother’s side. When I was told to make a family tree in Elementary school, I included both sides of my family. I maintain connections with both sides and talk to each of them on the phone equally. The drive to both of their houses is about the same so it is easy to make visits to both sides of grandparents. In our society now, I have the physical ability and economic stability to keep ties with extended family unlike some people who are limited to who they can