The Family Life Cycle

The concept that most appealed to me from chapter 12 was the family life cycle. Families follow a general pattern of development when going throughout life. The family life cycle is broken up into seven different stages but not all of them apply to everyone. For instance it can be different if a couple has no children or is homosexual. The first stage is establishing a family, in this phase a couple settles into a relationship and works out interaction patterns, expectations, and routines for their life together. The second stage is enlarging a family which includes the addition of children whether it is through conception or adoption. The third stage is developing a family which involves parents raising their children. The fourth stage is encouraging independence and this means to let the children evolve on their own as they go through adolescence. The fifth stage is launching a child which is when children leave home to go to college or live on their own. The sixth stage is post launching of children which is after the departure of children from home when the parents have to redefine their marriage. And finally the seventh stage, retirement which is a time to do what they want with their life.

Marriage in Fifty Years

With the way our society goes about now it’s tough to say what marriage will be like over the next fifty years. Nowadays marriage is a joke with roughly fifty percent of them ending in divorce. I can definitely see that number escalate with today’s cultural values. These days people go through relationships like nothing, they are hardly serious. I’m not saying that everyone’s relationship will be like this but it will be the majority in the next five decades. I can see the divorce rate going up from about fifty percent to seventy five percent. Right now being unfaithful in a marriage is common which leads to divorce most of the time. With our generation there are a lot of individuals that do not believe in the constitution of marriage and refuse to get married at all. That can also be a possibility; people will just not get married at all. But who am I to predict the future of marriage. 

My Definition of Family

My personal definition of family is those who love us unconditionally and treat us with respect and consideration. I think there is the family you are born into without choice, and then there's the family you build for yourself when you figure out who you should be close to through life. My definition of family goes deeper than just blood relation. For example, I have three friends that I have grown up with basically my whole life and I consider them my brothers. I believe family members support each other emotionally, physically, and financially. Family is there for you through thick and thin no matter what. They are there for you just to hangout or if something really troubling is going on in your life. I believe all of the relationships listed in chapter twelve fit into my definition of family. It doesn’t matter if you’re homosexual, heterosexual, step siblings, or even just close friends.