Family Dynamics

Hi Friends,
     I know this is only my second week of writing this blog but I think that this week might be my favorite topic. I want to talk about Family Dynamics. I thought this was just so interesting to talk about. In class, I loved listening to everyone's comments and thoughts on everything. We talked about a very interesting topic: What are some " unspoken" rules in your home that you just have always known? It was kind of hard for me to think of one but then when others started sharing I just got the biggest laughs because I thought my family only had these unspoken rules but I guess I was wrong. A few of those unspoken rules from my family are: The OLDEST child can only sit in the front seat when were all driving, we are all grown up now but when we are all in a car together you can bet that my oldest sister is in the front. For this next one, I swore I was the only one who had to do this so I am making a public apology to my mom for all the hard times I gave her on this one saying that I was the only kid who had to do this- We were expected to have our rooms cleaned when we had visitors over for dinner. I just never understood that. Why would I have to have my room cleaned when someone is coming over for dinner.. are these people coming into my room to eat dinner? That would be awkward. Apparently a lot of other moms made their kids do that too.. it made me feel better that it wasn't just me. We have "unspoken" assigned seats at dinner. My mom never told us that you can only sit in that exact seat but it has just become our seats. You never really notice it but now that I look at it, my family totally has assigned seats. Growing up I was always the baby of the family and still am even at the age of 19. I always would bring a bar stool to the dinner table and would sit by my mom but when I started getting older and bigger, the bar stool did not work. At that time, my older siblings were growing up and moving out and I eventually moved to a " real" chair. To this day I would never call it my assigned seat though. My true seat is by my mom on a bar stool. We also were asked how we knew this was a rule if it was unspoken, I found out about the front seat rule when I finally one day told myself that I would try and get to the front seat FIRST... then a few seconds later I saw an annoyed older sister and heard " Mom!! Tell Claire to get out the front seat!!" I have to admit, I did try a few more times but then finally gave up. The front seat is for the oldest sibling. Period. Many of us may think that our family dynamics are weird, embarrassing, stupid or pointless but they're not. Wanna know why? Because they make up YOUR family and they are your team. Look back at those family dynamics and see how they made you, you and how it makes up your family. They also are good to reminisce on funny time and make good laughs. Call up some of your family members this week and reminisce on some of your families unspoken rules and see how they made you, you. Remember that Family is Everything.

XOXO
-Claire

Stay YOU.