Family means, is, and functions around ‘Work’

 

Nowadays Family looks like a lot of different things and is defined differently for every culture, country, and legal law. Regardless of what family is to you or those you love, family takes work. What does work mean to you?

              Most people will think of the usual 9-5 as the definition of work. For me, work means a planned action to reach a specific goal. There are many people nowadays that glorify the 9-5 over the traditional home. What are you’re thoughts? Which would lead to a more successful and fulfilling life? There are a majority of people that now answer and say they think that a successful career is more important than a happy life with a spouse and children.

              I like to hope that my happiness and success will come from a happy family. I don’t find anything wrong with a career or with holding a job but that is not the type of work I seek after. I seek after a loving husband who will provide for my family. I hope you do not misunderstand me when I say provide for. I do not believe my husband needs to fall into any sort of box if he chooses not to. I do believe there should be someone in the family to gain the majority of the money for the family’s financial needs. I also believe there should be someone to rear the children in love and support. To teach them to love themselves and others, to seek after their goals and to never give up. Sure, these things can be taught in school, or a daycare, but I believe the parent to child relationship is extremely important. I believe our children will come to us for life’s questions, they will look to us for a model of an important life. With all of this said, I do believe both parents are required for the rearing of the children.

              I do not believe in the roles that society will place on a marriage. Ultimately it is between the man and woman which roles are split between who. I believe that at the end of the day, the husband and wife should work together. I grew up in a challenging family. I believe I’ve discussed this in previous blogs. My father strictly believes that his only role was to go to work. He did not believe in cooking for the children, he never cleaned, and never helped when it was required. He never spent one-on-one time with us children. He never sat us down to have heart to heart conversations. He did not care what we wanted or sought to help us. After my parents divorced, this of course had to change. When he had custody over us, he now had to cook for us, had to be involved in some way. But he still never helped with homework, with our social lives, with our life changes. He did the bare minimum. This is how he was raised. The women delt with everything in regard to the children, he was only responsible for the roof over our head. I do not mean to diminish the sacrifice my father made. We always had a roof over our head and that was a huge blessing. I would have preferred a loving father instead of one who just cooked for me and provided a home with no love. My mom had to take over roles such as the sole provider, as well as the one who cooked all meals, and helped with our homework, our emotional struggles, everything. This is not how I believe a family should be. Family is work, it is a challenge to make sure everyone’s needs are taken care of, but I believe when there are two willing and helpful parents, there will be success and love in the home.

Main take away: regardless of your role in your family, work to find people’s needs and address them.