For my area of research surrounding families I have decided to delve deeper into the family dynamic of nuclear "traditional", single parent, blended, and same-sex families. In this part of my research I decided to interview people from these various family dynamics in order to get a better look at these family situations that we as children did not choose to be in. Hopefully these interviews will dispel rumors about some of these family situations like a common one I hear: Do children from same-sex families turn out gay? By dispelling rumors I hopefully will be able to change some of the opinions of my readers or reinforce what they already knew.
The nuclear "traditional" family is when the house consists of a father, mother, and children. The basic normal family. I want to dispel these "traditional" values in this dynamic because since the 1950's saying traditional family meant good christian values and keeping your dirty laundry in the closet away from sight. And even today there are right-wing politicians trying to get elected because they care about "traditional" values in America. But in my opinion the "tradition" means exactly that traditions that have been past throughout the family.
Kiara Chavez is a seventeen year old living in Los Angeles with her father and mother. "Well if a traditional family is a father, mother and children than I am from a traditional family. When you ask about values it is because our values were created through our Mexican culture."
The Mexican culture she is talking about is within hispanic-latino families because most hispanic families are Catholics so in this sub category it combines religion and the strong sense of family connection within the latino culture.
Blended families are when the house is consisting of a parent re-marrying another person who also has children of their own. A big issue that people don't understand is in blended families is the sense of being an outcast because there the odd man out because of their step siblings. And the issue of getting along with step-parents.
Karla Sanchez is a nineteen year old, and also my ex-step sibling. She lives with her father, two sisters, and a brother. But in the years of 1997-2008 my mother and I lived with her family. "Well when my dad married your mom, my mom got married and I had a step-dad and step brothers. I mean at first when I was younger it was weird for me because I saw my parents with other people. It was really difficult to get along with my step mom (my mother) because I was living with my mom mostly and I felt like if i got along with my step mom I would be betraying her."
Coming from a blended family myself I had the same feelings as well. When you are in the blended family most kids are also jumping back and forth between parents on the weekends. I always got the dreaded question from my father "How's your mom and Richard? (ex-step father)" For some kids they feel like they are choosing sides the parent they live with or the one they see on the weekends.
Same sex families is when the house consists of two fathers or two mothers in the modern era of the 2000's same sex families are on the rise because certain state governments are now choosing to recognize them as regular families. But with the acceptance there is still people believing that there families are not real and feel that children in these families are at risk.
Elena (does not want last name published) is a seventeen year old living in a religious right suburb called Temecula, CA. She comes from a same-sex family. She lives with her two mothers. Elena is also my ex, I found out she came from a same sex family when I first went to her house to pick her up for a date. To my surprise I didn't have to meet the father but two overbearing mothers. "I was adopted when I was younger so growing up this was normal to me. I can say just because you live with same sex parents doesn't mean you'll turn out gay. I feel like because I have two moms I am more accepting of people and their differences."
Someone's sexual orientation is not a reflection of someone's family situation so if you have two moms or a mom and a dad it is irrelevant to your sexuality. I was raised by a mother and a step father and I am a openly gay man. Elena was raised by two mother's and she's a heterosexual woman.
Single parent dynamics are when one parents raises the children. In these modern times single parent dynamics are mostly single mothers. These single parents usually raise their children in what I call the "between marriage" times it is the time between the ending of the last marriage till the next marriage.
If you have been consistently reading you already know that I was raised by my mother. My mothers "between marriage" years were 1995-1997 and 2008-2012.
Irma Torres is a 41 year old mother of two. She was raised with her seven other siblings by her single mother. And she is my mother. "Being raised by a single mother sort of prepared me when I became a single parent. My mother worked hard to support me and my siblings but she could only so much so I decided to get a job and help out as much I could when I was 14. Because I was raised by my mother I gained a strong sense of independence. When I became a single parent I was only raising one child (me) it was still hard because I was working late shifts and couldn't spend as much time with my child than I would have liked to."
Being a only child of a single parent when I turned fourteen was difficult on me because I would get back from school to an empty home and wait till 7p.m. for my mother to get back from work but during those four years I became self reliant and independent. I learned how to basically take care of myself. The children of single parent families tend to have a stronger sense of independence because they raised themselves and if they had younger siblings they took care of them too.
To my readers I hope my interviews of children from the various dynamics have changed or reinforced your opinions about the dynamics that you have never been a part of. In doing this you as my reader hopefully will have this new found knowledge and will be able to understand your peers who don't come from a traditional father and mother household.
