The Family Systems

FAMILY SYSTEMS 

One topic that I was reading and learning about this week was the idea of how each of our families are a system and through each member of the system it is able to be sustained. I thought that this was a very interesting and intriguing topic. The family being a system is basically the idea that every member of the family takes on a role that will hopefully benefit and sustain the family's needs. The idea is that the family itself is a whole organization and each member of that family needs to benefit or help contribute to that organization. Each member of the family may take on a different role. I have an example of this is my own family. I am the second oldest of four sisters, so things can get pretty crazy, at our house. Both of my parents worked a lot when we were growing up so a lot of the time me and my older sister would be in charge of taking care of my younger sisters during the day, while my parents were at work. I stepped into the role of taking care of them and being in charge a lot more than my older sister did. This didn't mean that she contributed any less than me she just had a different role than I did. Each member of the family can and will have a personality or characteristic that may make them more equipped to handle a certain role. My personality fit better with the role of taking care of my siblings. 

Each family will have a different system. All members of the family will find a way to contribute to the family system. The different circumstances of each family will help to determine what roles each family member will have in the organization. For example, the family system will look different for a single mother household than it would look for a family that has a working father and a stay-at-home mother. One of the children of the single mother household may have to step up and take more of a care giver role and the children that have a mother that is able to stay home and take care of that role may not have to take on that role. The two families have different circumstances so the family system roles will adjust for the things that the family needs.

Usually once each person has figured out what their role in the family system will be that is what role they will have for the rest of their lives in that specific family system. Once a family member leaves the family system their role may change outside of the home but when they come back people seem to fall back into their original roles in the family system. A girl in my class shared a great example of this. She said that she was normally the jokester, up lifting, and funny member of the family. That was her role in the family system but when she moved away, she began in shift away from that. As soon as she returned home, she continued on in the role as though she had never left.

Family systems are very important to support and help our families be sustainable. We all have a place in our family system.