Read "Changing American Families" and then write 1 well-developed (at least 5 sentences) paragraph in response to the following question:
Aulette describes many different types of families. Ignore the names of each category of family and pay attention to the descriptions instead. Which traits do you feel describe your own family experience the most? (the different traits that you discuss do not have to--and probably won't--all come from the same category).
Due: Before our next class meeting.
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I related to the upper- class families: gatekeepers in the sense that my family is really private about money and personal family issues. But I also see my immediate family as middle class families because my parents did identify themselves on individual achievements, because my parents did work really hard to be where they are now. They also had to separate themselves from their immediate families and come to California where non of their family was to start their own careers. Once in California they did seek friendship rather than family for support. Once stable in their careers they were like working class families because they separated family from work , and did marry for love and not money.
ReplyDeleteI think my family is in many ways like the middle-class black family in how they put education first. Even in the way that the parents want the kids to do better than they could have ever done is the way my parents are. They are also like the white middle-class in how they want us to take risks and be adventurous. My parents did marry for love and we have always been a nuclear family, yet have gone out of our comfort zone and sought out close non-kin ties. And in some ways we are like an upper-class family by my parents pushing us to work hard and gain confidence and friendship through sports and activities. Except for the immigrant experience, my family has almost all of the American family traits.
ReplyDeleteOne of the traits that my family has is that we all know a lot about each other just like the upper class family. On Sundays we have family days and we just talk or go on family trips. Another trait is that my mom and dad always make education a big emphasis on my sistets and my life. Even though i am already 19 they do not want me to have a boyfriend and since i do they do not want me to hang out with him or my friends when i have school. So the only time i can hang out is during school or during summer. This trait comes from The Black Middle Class. Comming from the Mexican Americans Section my dad is very "machismo." He is always expecting food on the table when he comes home from work or he is always telling us that the ladies need to stay home and clean and if we do go out he tells us that women shouldn't be out to late.
ReplyDeleteI most of all represent the Vietnamese immigrant families by having a family ruled by a patriarch and my dad's first daughter is the generation that challenged this traditional model. My family's traits also involve being about the prediction of when the son takes after the father's job, my older brother is actually doing that. My dad owns a store and he's learning to be the owner. I am also part of the middle-class family by moving when i was ten years of age because my dad relocated business.
ReplyDeletePersonal experience would navigate me to having my family traits run with the Mexican American experience with some traits of the others. My parents came from Mexico so my father was forced to carry on traits that women were conditioned to carry. He learned how to maintain himself and manage a home alone. When my mom comes into the picture, that is when the traits of the white family comes in because of our family not being a matriarchy one. Like a black family, on the other hand, my parents believe that with a good education, i am able to be the representative of the family as well as our people due to my continuation of education.
ReplyDeleteThe traits that best describe my familiy are a combination of traits from a couple of the different categories. One of my family's traits is that we are identified as a family unit based on our own achievements, separate from lineage and membership with extended family. Although we are close ot aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, we also rely on friends and form social networks with the people around us in our community. My family is like the middle class nuclear family in that I live in a single-family home with my mom, dad, and siblings. Like working class families my parents married for love and work and family life has always been separate. My parents value education and hard work, considering it a tool for success and personal achievement. Athletics and activities are also important to my family because they teach discipline and build confidence.
ReplyDeleteThe traits that I think belong more to my family are the white working class family and the black middle class. How we relate to the working white working class family is how we share the baby-sitting. We all have to learn to share what we have. We relate to the black middle class, in how education is very important. Education for us should come first before marriage, even if we do get married education should still come first. Education is also important so that our race can be seen as being able to achieve higher education.
ReplyDeleteAre we supposed to post our paragraph on here?
ReplyDeleteI believe the traits that best describe my family experience mostly come from the white middle class because my family moved very far away from kin ties in order to move up the social economic ladder and how we rely on our friends to become our family members. But my family is also very much structured like that of the black middle class. For example each generation from my brother and I is expected to stand on the shoulder of the past and to do more than the previous generation ever could. Another way my family is similar to the black middle class is how the most important objective for my parents is to provide the best possible education for me and my brother. The only quality that my family seems to have in common with the working class is that we believe that a marriage is based on love and the ability to make a good working family. Basically my family has a foot in every different kind of SEC except for maybe the upper class which is totally fine by me.
ReplyDeleteThe social class my family relates to the most is middle-class. When economic help is needed, my family may rely more on non-family resources, rather than family. My mom would most likely go to the bank for a loan in this kind of situation. Also, the members of my family seem to find more emotional and social support from friends, rather than family members. The book also says that middle-class people refrain from sharing and maintain friendships that do not include sharing resources. I can identify with this because my family clutters our house by keeping everything we buy for a very long time. I think that getting rid of old items can be a form of sharing because those items can be given to someone else in need. My family also marries for love, not money, which is a working-class characteristic.
ReplyDeleteI would say that my family would fall into the immigrant middle class. My parents had to move from Korea for the sake of business. our friends are crucial to business and we rely more on friends in times of crisis than relatives and vice versa because they are in similar situations with my family. The fact that none of my relatives live in the U.S. may contribute to why we dont turn to our relatives for help. Friends are like family in that, for example, instead of relatives friends would gather for special occasions like thanksgiving dinners and christmas.
ReplyDeleteThe social class my family most likely fits into is middle-class family. We usually do not co hearse with extended family except of my grandparents I never really see much of my cousins or extended family.When it comes to what the book stated about parents needing economic assistance my family would go to a bank get a loan. I myself have gone to bank to get a student loan so my family would not have to pay for some of my college. My family is working class family that works for what we can and accumulates what wealth we can and usually does not share with our family.
ReplyDeleteMy family fall into a few categories like the middle-class category because my parents have always told me and my sister to get a good education to have better than what they have and also my parents have relocated because of work. We fall into the Immigrant families category because we all immigrated here from Mexico in 1996 in hope of a better life although my parents were separated for a while my mom decided to bring me and my sister here to the USA to reunite with my dad. If my mom wouldn't have joined my dad she would have been a "mujer abandonada"(an abandoned woman) which is the sad story of many women in Mexico. Judy writes pretty accurate descriptions in her categories because many of the things mentioned in the reading sound exactly like a description of my family.
ReplyDeleteMy family best relates to Working-class White Families. Both my parents were in poverty when they married. Most of my dad's family lives down the street from us. My aunts occasionally cook for the whole family and babysitting is a constant need. Another characteristic my family relates to is borrowing and lending money with extended family. Work and family are completely separate.
ReplyDeleteThe traits that describe my own family experience the most are the black middle class family traits. The reading said that one trait of the black middle class family is the parents insist that the children get a good education. The reason being is to avoid possible deprivations and to have a sense of achievement. My father stresses this issue because it is important to him to be the best I can be no matter my skin color. He grew up in the 1950's where he was not allowed to go in certain places and do certain things because of his skin color. I believe that having an education is the key to success especially for a young black women like myself.
ReplyDeleteThe traits I see in my family are predominantly Black Middle Class, and a small amount of Black working class. Growing up, my parents always stressed education. My mother often said, "As a Black man, you'll have to work twice as hard to be thought of half as good". Both of my parents are from the South, and mother went to college during the late 60's and early 70's. Her experiences were proof that education can close the gap for minorities.
ReplyDeleteThe traits that describe my family the most are the Black Middle Class and Middle Class. Like both classes my parents have always pushed me to do well in school because they believe that a good education gets a person to better places. Also, in the Black Middle Class there is greater equality between husbands and wives which is true for my family. Like the middle class, my parents are more likely to go to a bank for a loan in times of need rather than to a family member or friend. This is also true for myself, in that I would get a student loan from the bank to pay for school rather than ask a family member.
ReplyDeleteIn my family I would have to say we have a mix of middle class, black middle class, and working class traits. We have often moved to different locations in order to attain better jobs, though we’ve never moved too far away until I joined the military which required me to move to Texas for close to six years. We have placed education as a top priority in the household to the point of having three members enrolled full time in classes. The hope is that with higher education as a whole we’ll be able to make progress on the social ladder and lead more comfortable lifestyles in the future. Recent events have made us closely dependent on each other for support both moral and financial, a definite advantage when school and work schedules clash.
ReplyDeleteAs I have observed my family, we have changed working class to middle class. My father and mother started togegher without jobs, and they might love each other as I heared from grandmother. Then, father had to move to another city far from his home for better job, and they settled down there where they have lived now. After I became teenager, my father opened his business and succeeded it. My parents pushed me to have a great education background, and our house was also changed to larger one. However, they don't think that they inherit their estate to me, so it is definitely not a upper class.
ReplyDelete