Family

What is family? Many people have their different view on their own family, but there is one definition for it. Family is usually your parents and your siblings, or anyone with the same blood running through their bodies. But your family can be anyone outside of your blood family, like a best friend you knew for years.  It could also be a group of people you hang out with all the time. My personal definition of an “outside family” is someone or people you’ve known for years, that you trust, and are down for you NO MATTER WHAT! I really just can’t stress that enough. No matter what happens your there for each other through thick and thin. No matter what kind of family you have (blood or not) it’s important for you to have that support.

In my book, Darnell Rock Reporting, by Walter Dean Myers, Darnell has two families, his blood family, his mother, father, and sister, and school, or street family. He has lived in the same neighborhood all his life. He grew up with those kids and also goes to school with them. I don’t know specifically what kind of relationship he has with his parents, but with his sister, they talk about almost everything and that’s great because you can’t talk to your sister about everything. He also tells and talks to his boys about everything too. His friends that he goes to school with and grew up with are also there for him NO MATTER WHAT!

Personally, and I’m going be real on this, I think it’s always important to have a second family because sometimes your blood family won’t understand you and it WILL be frustrating. I always feel like I’m being judged in a way by the girls in my family (my mom and sister). The reason why I say that is because every time I do something wrong, get in trouble or anything like that, they go and tell the whole family, all their friends, and everything. I absolutely hate when they do that. Then whoever they tell comes up to me and asks me about to situation. They have no right to do that because it’s none of their business. Another thing is when they automatically jump to conclusions when they hear or think something happened that has to deal with me. Most of the time there wrong and when I correct them, I’m “lying”.  I know for a fact I’m not alone on this. I know many people who feel the exact same way. But if I do have a problem I either talk to my brothers, my cousin, or my friend family. The friend family that I have, I’ve had for a long time and gradually adding more people to my friend family. We are TRULY there for each other NO MATTER WHAT! I can talk about anything with them and it’s always good to know you have someone there.

I know for a fact I’m not the only one who feels this way. I know people personally who also feel the way I do. They’re either my age, or near my age. In situations like these you’re never alone.  Just one person can make a huge difference. I think if parents had a “best friend” relationship with their kids but still had that line of “I’m still your parent” this wouldn’t happen so much. By saying that I mean that parents should have a friend relationship with us but we shouldn’t just talk to them any kind of way. There is still that boundary of I'm still an adult treat me like one. Something like this can’t start when we’re 13 or around that age, it has to start young, or else we’ll have a hard time believing them. Just remember, any kind of family you have, just make sure they are down for you NO MATTER WHAT, you trust them, and you have to do the same!

For more infomation on different kind of family problems and how to deal with them please visit this website http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Family_Issues.shtml