Family Questions

[Chelley]

Okay, so as many of you know (or have at least been told, whether you remember or not :P ), I'm going to college for a degree in Early Childhood Education. One of my classes this semester is "Family & Community Partnerships." I'm posting this 'cause I need some homework help. I'm supposed to interview 2 families that are substantially different than my own. The only problem is, I don't really know anyone that fits that and I don't feel comfortable walking up to total strangers and asking them about their family. So I'm asking everyone here instead.

As this is for an education class, all information is kept private. However, I will use pseudonyms. Just answer the questions below if you would, pretty please? I will answer the questions for my family as an example for each "question."

Family Structure: Mother, Father (Army), 1 younger sister, Grandmother

Typical family activities: Church, parks, motorcycle gatherings, movies

Meal time: Usually ate together. As I learned to cook, family meals were usually done by me, or we went to restaurants or ordered delivery.

Childhood chores: make my bed, keep my room tidy, vacuum, dishes

Family celebrations, holidays, birthdays: the usual "American" holidays (New Year's, 4th of July, Thanksgiving), Christmas, no special family only celebrations. Birthdays when little involved party and cake, as we got older, that shifted to b-day dinner at restaurant of birthday person's choice.

Relationships with extended family members: While Dad was in the service, we visited my maternal grandmother every other summer. Kept in touch with Dad's side via occasional phone calls and email. Don't really keep in touch with most of Mom's side except for my great-uncle who calls every now and then to check on his sister (my grandmother).

Family Transitions: Each military move (Anchorage to Louisiana to Germany, back to Louisiana, to Texas, then finally back to Anchorage). Going into middle school, then high school, then college. Transitions were usually faced fairly matter of factly, but with plenty of love and support from all around.

Types of family involvement in children's education: Both parents came to school events, but were not involved in the classroom. (For that matter, I can't ever remember seeing a parent volunteer in any of my classes.) They would help with homework or projects, but always made my sister and I do the work ourselves.

Family values and goals: Our religion, family, friends. College is a highly encouraged goal, but not especially expected. Hard work, honesty in all things, to always do one's best. That if you fail at something, get up, dust yourself off, and try again.


Hopefully, my answers will tell you what the question is looking for. If you're not quite sure what is meant, feel free to ask.

Thanks!

[Luned]

Family Structure: Myself, younger brother, mother, and random people tend to live with us for various lengths of time (I'm the most recent to return to the house but we've had significant others, friends in need, etc).

Typical family activities: Trivia night/beers at pub, beach trips, concerts/shows. Today everyone came to the tattoo parlor to keep me company and I've done the same for them.

Meal time: We eat together a couple times a week, but usually everyone's independent as we all have very different lifestyles. Usually a "fend for yourself" environment, and we take turns cooking family meals as we feel like it.

Childhood chores: General self-sufficiency stuff: cook, clean up after yourself in kitchen and your room and elsewhere, do your own laundry, etc. As the eldest, I also helped out with my younger siblings.

Family celebrations, holidays, birthdays: Birthdays are usually small events, the holidays are when things get big. My mother has hosted keggers here for Independence Day and New Year's. We celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah both in a similar, enthusiastically bastardized manner. Thanksgiving is usually more about supporting friends than spending time with family.

Relationships with extended family members: I have two different father figures from my mother's marriages, so it's a lot of work to keep up with their families (plus one's remarried so there's his extended family and I have a stepbrother through him). I usually see each side (there are many at this point, with all the remarriages) once or twice a year and keep up more regularly online.

Family Transitions: There's been my mother's marriages, which have significantly altered the family dynamics each time. Divorces are painful but my mother, brother, and I are all really close, so we manage together and at this point are a pretty solid little group at this point. (I keep mentioning the marriages –– to clarify, my mother was married to our birth father for about six years, and my stepdad about eighteen. They weren't all willy nilly or anything.) I was off on my own for the past few years and only recently returned, but since the household has become a pretty nontraditional, liquid thing, transitions are just the norm. People come and go, and you make the most of their company while you can.

Types of family involvement in children's education: Pretty involved through high school and morally supportive concerning college, but pretty much on my own regarding finances and decision making. There's been a lot of celebration over my degrees, but the road to earn them has been an independent one.

Family values and goals: There's a huge focus on community. Our family isn't necessarily all related by blood, but we're lucky that we've been able to choose who we welcome into our lives. Education is encouraged but, due to limited resources, not entirely supported. I guess independence and knowing how to handle your business is a recurring theme, too.

[Roc]

Family Structure: Mother, Father, Brother, Sister

Typical family activities: Beach vacation every summer. Aside from that, we didn't/don't do a ton.

Meal time: Frequently eat together, with the exception of my brother who does his own thing.

Childhood chores: Keep my room clean (I ignored that), dishes, trash, and mowing the lawn as I got a little older.

Family celebrations, holidays, birthdays: Birthdays, Easter, Thankgiving, Christmas. Usually eat a nice dinner, but otherwise pretty relaxed.

Relationships with extended family members: None I look forward to seeing, lol. My grandmother on my mom's side is an absolute nightmare. I avoid interacting with her at all costs. My mom only talks to her because otherwise she'd die alone. My uncle on my mom's side is cool enough... once you get past the fact that he believes in every conspiracy theory ever. Conversations tend to get predictable. My aunt on my dad's side is married and her husband hates us, so there's not much of a connection there either. They have four kids, only one of which was worth having in my opinion. That's about it. Oh, wait - my brother has a kid. He's autistic. Sweet kid, but I haven't really learned how to communicate with him yet, so yeah.

Family Transitions: Not much to note here. When my little sister was born we moved to a bigger house, but it was just to the next town over - not exactly a big deal. Nothing else to say, really. When it came time for me to head out for college, my family was a hell of a lot more stressed than I was. I just go with the flow... not much gets me worked up because I just don't care about much, lol.

Types of family involvement in children's education: I was generally left to do my own thing, same with my sister. Parents would try to help with projects and major assignments, but I'd much rather do things my own way. Again, same with my sister.

Family values and goals: We look out for each other. Not religious or political, not especially involved in the community. College is an expectation.

[The Inventor]

Family Structure: Mother, Father, Me, & 4 younger brothers

Typical family activities: Church & Sports

Meal time: Mostly ate together when I was younger, fell away as Me and my brother had college & work.

Childhood chores: Keep my room clean, dishes, trash, mowing the lawn as I got a little older, clean the bathroom, dust, vacuum, & mop

Family celebrations, holidays, birthdays: Three major holidays (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving), New Years, & 4th of July (all with extended family). Just did cake & ice cream, with grandparents, for birthdays, plus birthday person gets to choose dinner.

Relationships with extended family members: Great relationship, see most of them at least twice a month, but usually 1 a week.

Family Transitions: Lets see, Mom & Dad's graduations, Mom & Dad's marriage, Dad's first full time job & our first move, move 2 years before kindergarten, move in first grade, Dad opening a business, home school in 6th grade, Dad drops business & we move in 7th unto Florida, Dad working abroad in 9th grade, return to hometown between 10th & 11th grade, Dad getting hurt in 12th grade My Graduation, My first year in college, oldest brother's graduation, My brother's & Dad's first year in college.

Types of family involvement in children's education: Homework, Home schooled for a year & caught us up when discovered school's curriculum behind all others.

Family values and goals: Christianity, Love, & Trust for extended family, College a must for Immediate Family.

[Skie and Avery]

Family Structure: Mother (me! My own higher tier is an adopted father, two sisters and a brother), Father (Zook - dad and mom), baby

Typical family activities: Movies, gaming, going to the park/zoo/museum

Meal time: I cook. Because of Zook's work schedule, I tend to pack dinner for him to take and I eat at the table. The baby has recently started solids so she eats with me. We tend to eat breakfast and lunch alone, Zook at his computer and me on the couch or while I clean/play with the baby.

Childhood chores: My sister and I did all the chores growing up. We kept the house clean and when we were old enough started cooking. Zook fed the family pets, and was in charge of bringing the trash bins up from the road after the trash collectors came.

Family celebrations, holidays, birthdays: Typical American on both sides.

Relationships with extended family members: I mostly kept in touch with aunts and uncles. I lived with an aunt for a brief period after my mom died. Most of Zook's extended family live pretty far from here so he saw them several times a year, mostly around holidays.

Family Transitions: Zook lived in the same house his entire life, and his parents stayed together. My parents divorced when I was young. We lived in a bunch of different apartments until my mom left, then stayed with my grandmother until my dad married again and bought a house when I was 5. I lived there until I was 10 when my mom came back and moved in with her. We lived in a couple of apartments, then a couple of rental houses, until we moved in with her 4th husband when I was 13. I stayed there until I was 17. She passed away and my aunt took me in. My aunt kicked me out when I graduated high school and I've been on my own ever since. My dad lost his house and he stayed with me a lot in some of my first apartments because he'd get evicted a lot. Most moves were out of financial necessity, very stressful. The big move from my dad's house to my mom's house when I was 10 was a defining moment - my stepmother had been abusing me and I was given the option to live with my mom after CPS started snooping around when a school nurse reported the bruising. Happiest moment of my childhood. Finally my sister moved in with my dad to help keep him straight, and she had my nephew. I moved across the country to be with Zook, and my niece was born.

For our own little family, Zook and I have moved a few times. I gained my associates degree and started working on my bachelors, Zook went back to school. We got married, had the baby. I'd say most of our transitions have been very supportive and happy with the exception of moving in with our crazycakes ex-roommate.

Types of family involvement in children's education: I'm fairly certain my dad doesn't even know what I major in. Zook's mom pushed for him to go into the medical field, still push for him to pursue a higher nursing degree but he's decided to follow his own goals and they've been really supportive.

Family values and goals: Things that are important for our little family - unity, education, love? Wow, that's goddamn sappy. We're not terribly religious, but it's important to us that everyone is taken care of and happy. It's important to us that the baby eventually go to college.

[Prophet]

Family Structure: Mother, Father, brother. 1 younger sister. (Things. Don't ask.)

Typical family activities: Movies, sports on occasion,

Meal time: Usually were apart. I had massive amounts of projects with school and was half the time doing some science board or video call to brazil.

Childhood chores: Homework, cleaning my room, take out trash. Few others.

Family celebrations, holidays, birthdays-Well, lets see. Typical american holidays, and for birthdays. Ah. Those were great. Every year for
My brother and I (Our b-days are like 2 and a half days apart) would go out somewhere for the day, with grandparents, or a friends parents, while my mom and dad would make food. (Full blooded Greek and German respectively.) So we would have this huge barbecue, schnitzel, and random
Other stuff dinner, followed by pineapple upside down cake, with my dads root beer. And handmade ice cream.

Relationships with extended family-Good. I prefer not to answer.

Family Transitions: Really we didnt move much, with the exception of my move to Texas to help with my Grandmother for a while. Other than that, we stayed around Central New York, and I've since permanently moved to Pennsylvania.

Types of family involvement in children's education: My mom would have homeschooled me and my bro, but that didnt happen because of the work she was involved in. But my dad had a teaching major, so, from about 3 we were homeschooled, until 12, where he applied for a job as a trucker, and was constantly away. So our mom just helped with it as much as she could.

Family values and goals: Get my brother and I through college. We weren't religious (we went to Christmas and Easter ceremonies, with the exception of my grandmother.

[Chelley]

Thanks a lot for the responses everyone! It's been really helpful. It's interesting to see all the different backgrounds among us.