Family and Couple Scales/Family Map Homework

Family and Couple Scales/Family Map Homework

Section one

A family is a blessing from God. A family with whom you share your sorrows and joys, families are always there to guide you through your growing years, and they always stand with you during the toughest times. It is a great blessing to have a family. My family is comprised of four people, my father, my mother, my younger brother, and me. Only my father works for a living, and my mother is a housewife. My father is a governmental officer working in a government department. My mother plays a vital role in taking care of the family members and even our studies. My family has a Christian background, and some of our values include honesty, education, kindness, and modesty. We always go to church on Sundays. On Sundays, my father never goes to work on Sundays. Therefore, we always spend the day together as a family going to church, and after church, we always go for a walk.

We live in a middle-class neighborhood in Los Angeles. Growing in a middle-class neighborhood has enabled us to develop the virtue of trust. Societies that are made up of middle-class individuals are always more willing to help each other in business and life (Connidis 57).  My extended family lives in San Diego. We always visit each other frequently to ensure that we can help each other when there is a need. My younger brother suffers from sickle cell anemia, and this disease affects his healthy life and even other essential activities such as going to school. On some days, my brother always complains of chronic pains which contributes to fatigue. With the pain, my brother always finds it difficult to sleep. When I was growing up the community had a significant impact on our family because members of my community ensured that they provided young children with favorable learning environment.

Section two

I score my family at 6 for closeness. Even though my father is always away working at the government office and we spend most part of the week in schools, we always find time to spend together as a family. During weekdays, our family always spend time together only at night. Therefore, we have formed some daily routines to ensure that we maintain our closeness.  We always take our supper together to ensure that everybody is at the table to share their experiences during the day and ask for help when there is need. After supper, we always find time to watch the television together as a family and we finalize by reading together. During the reading time, my brother and I always take time to complete our assignments while my father takes time to book appointments and schedule the next day’s activities. My mother always spends this time reading a novel or helping us complete our assignments. On some weekends we always to holidays or attend events such as birthdays and anniversaries. These activities play an important role in ensuring that the closeness between the family members is maintained. Being close to one another as a family is very important because it ensures that when one member of the family is facing challenges, we are able to provide help quickly. Maintaining closeness also plays an important role in ensuring that we are happy as a family (Connidis 43). We also often go out camping and hiking together during our free days. Sometimes, we always go hiking with out mother in the absence of our father because he is always very busy at the office. However, we cannot go camping without our father because we need him for security and so that he can guide us.

Section three

Our family faced hard times when my father was sacked from his previous job for failing to report to his workplace on time. My father failed to report to his workplace on time for a period of one week because he always woke up very early in the morning to take my brother to the hospital for checkups. At this time, my brother was fighting the chronic pain caused by sickle cell anemia and taking to the hospital daily for morning checkups played an important role enabling my brother manage the pain. During these times, there was a large amount of money required for our school fees, taking care of our daily needs and even paying the house rent among others. My father had to do some odd jobs to ensure that he could provide for the family. I also decided to help my father raise money required for the family upkeep and pay some parts of my school fees. My brother also went through very hard times because we could afford to purchase some of the drugs that had been prescribed for his pain management. Since my father found the second job in the government office, he ensures that he saves some amount of money to help us meet our financial needs during hard times. We a learnt a lesson the hard way and we always to not waste money purchasing unnecessary items.

Work Cited

Connidis, Ingrid Arnet. “Exploring ambivalence in family ties: Progress and prospects.” Journal   of Marriage and Family 77.1 (2015): 77-95.