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How was your family structured when you were growing up? Did you grow up with both original parents in the home? If your parents divorced, did you go back and forth between them? Whether divorced or widowed, did your parent remarry? How old were you? Was yours a multi-generational household with grandparents living with you? Did your mom work outside the home, and if so, was it full-time or part-time? Was there a clearly delineated division of labor between your parents (or parent and step-parent) and how traditional was it? Did your parents believe in child labor?! That is, how structured were chores? What responsibility, if any, did you have for things like doing your own laundry, fixing your own school lunch, etc.? Were your parents do-it-yourself-ers or did they hire people for repairs, painting, etc.? Is your current marriage/family structure similar to the way you were raised? What do you do differently than you did then?
Well my family is a dictatorship with a slight side of democracy. Dad's the head of the house, below him Mom, below Mom, myself & Bro #1, below us the animals- - -I actually think the dog is above the cat, anyways. Most of the time when discussing Bro #1 and I can ask questions and we can slightly figure out what the parents are talking about, but they get to make the decision in the end, but we can add in put. Mom and Dad worked full-time until Bro #1 and I were pulled out of school, then Mom might have gone to part-time, but I don't really remember. Dad is still working full time and doesn't work on a 9-5 schedule, for example he came home last night at 10:30 from a bid opening somewhere in CT. Mom currently is a SAHM, but is applying for jobs.
Child Labor? What's that? JK! I know what it is! When Bro #1 and I were first homeschooled, Mom and Dad worked for the family business so we would help somehow, I would file, send faxes, shred papers, or the most boring and worse job we could get. Organizing the parts room and figuring out how much we have, there is a fancy word for this, but it's 7 and I'm really tired! Anyways, Bro #1 and I have grown up always doing something, if we weren't working at work then we had chores at home to complete, and if there weren't chores to do then Dad would find something for us to do instead of watch tv or play the computer. I joke that when I become a mother that I will raise my children completely different from how mine raised me, but I don't know how or if I'll follow through with that threat that I've said multiple times to Mom.
Cae ♥
4 comments:
Ah, Cae, the one who's flashback is all present tense! LOL
I think the word you are looking for is inventory. :-)
I predict you'll raise your kids just like your folks did.
Enjoyed your post. I remember saying the same thing to my mom, and to some degree some things were different when I was raising my daughter. We were always really close and still are. And I think that is because I would stop what I was doing and listen to what she had to say. I treated her like she was important. But it is amazing how the older you get the wiser your parents were.
until next time... nel
Linda- Inventory!! That's the word!!!! Thank you :D
Nel - I have a feeling that Linda's write, I will be parenting my kids like my parents, because it looks like they're doing a good job ;)
Cae
I'm impressed to hear that the dog's ahead of the cat in the hierarchy of your home. Seems to me like cats always want the top of the pile--and oftentimes get them.
I sometimes wonder whether I'll raise my children like I was raised. In the "core", I really appreciate how I was raised. At the same time, my personality and talents are very different than my mother's--and I have a feeling that does impact parenting style quite a deal. And then there's the fact that I'll be parenting with someone else, who will likely have totally different experiences with parenting than I and completely different personality and talents as well. Which means that while I might want to use my parents' style as a model, I'm sure there'll be plenty of tweaking to fit it to my own unique family (Lord willing on all of the above!)
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