Family Sub-Systems

As I have researched this week about the family, I have focused it on sub-systems and Symbolic Interaction Theory. These both captured my attention because I can easily recognize what they mean and categorize them. I will elaborate what I mean in the following paragraph.

Growing up, my siblings and I all had a portion of our school years in the home being homeschooled by our mother. We developed not only good independent study, but a strong bond with our mother. We each shared in a sub system relationship with our mother. Mine was one of what you might say, “Mama’s boy”. Even though I may be a “mama’s boy” we had good times and we also had stressful times. I had to learn the hard way a lot, but all in all, my lessons were always from the heart and made with love.

The family dynamics of my family built strong bonds. The fact that my sister’s and I were at home for school brought us closer together. It taught us how to be there for each other, how to work together and work out our strong personalities amongst each other. Mom was the enforcer and through even “the eye” we received feedback from out behavior. Her kindness was also a major influence on us all. Although it was hardly ever what I would call “fun”, I always knew and felt that this sacrifice she made for us was something that we should all be grateful for. She had a strong influence on each of us. She molded our behaviors with each one of the subsystems in our household.

Another subsystem in my family would include my mom and dad, as the Executive System. Mom and dad would discuss our education and our religious goals together and from that, we knew the rules were made. Arguing over these decisions never worked out well for any of us. We knew not to argue with our curriculum and tried to make the best of it. I remember one year they decided that I would take cooking lessons. I would consider this as one of the conflicts, or power struggles in my mom and I’s relationship. We had many of those, but this one sticks out in my mind the most I have to admit I was kind of a stinker in the desire to do this class. I was pretty confrontation to my poor mom in that class. I really did not want to do this class for some reason. Looking back now, I don’t understand why I had such a problem with this class, but it was bad. Even though I gave my mom a lot of grief over learning to cook, I knew that it was useless to try and get out of it. Looking back now, I know why I didn’t learn much in my cooking class. I really did not enjoy cooking, but I did learn the basics and I know because of that class, I can figure out how to make, at least, basic food and I probably wont ever die of starvation.

All in all, the subsystems in my family are perfect for me. Homeschool was a huge influence in the way I saw the world and myself, along with my family, and it also was a huge influence on my relationships, behaviors and my well-being in growing up. I love the relationship I have with my mom and know that it was strengthened because of those years I had home with her learning and growing. It may have made me a “mama’s boy” but I wouldn’t change it for the world.