Amanda Devion – Family Structures

Being married and having a family, I was drawn to the section within this chapter about family structures. I personally believe that both ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ are involved in why a person is the way that they are. With that said, my belief has more weight on the ‘nurture’ side as “the way that a child is socialized depends on many characteristics of the family” and socialization has a lot to do with why a person is the way that they are (pg. 197). Both my husband and I contribute equally in our marriage and treat each other in a respectful and loving manner. Our children see this and will hopefully follow in our footsteps.

The estimation that 20-30% of children born in the 2000’s will experience the divorce of their biological parents is really scary to me (pg. 199). I can only imagine what my relationship with my husband would look like to our children if we were on the brink of a divorce. Children are very insightful, more than we give them credit for and I’m sure our children would know something was up regardless of how much we would try to keep our problems hidden from them. This will in turn change their perspective and opinion of what a positive family structure is like, if they still believed one is possible at all.

I was pleased to read about the comparisons between ‘traditional’ families and same-sex families having children with the same emotional and behavioural development as well as educational achievement (pg. 202). Even without having read the research, I would have felt the same way. Our family is close friends with a lesbian couple and although they do not have children of their own, you can say that they have adopted our children as their own. We are very fortunate to have such loving people around our children and us!

Discussion Question: What is the primary family structure of the classroom that you are placed in for your practicum? How does this influence your teaching?