Family Culture

When most people hear the word “culture”, they automatically think of generalized terms like Indian culture, Mexican culture, or American culture. These ideas of culture do not fully explain the vast applications of the term. Different cultures are found in every city, friend group, and, as is the focus of my blog, family. Every family has its own culture. It is a combination of the family cultures the mother and father came from. My family is centered around The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so our culture is highly influenced by the teachings in our church. We are constantly striving to become more like our savior Jesus Christ and support each other in that goal.

I come from a family of five children, all of us girls. This has had a big impact on our family culture. My father is big into sports, while my mom is a dancer. Thus, my sisters and I did both dance and sports growing up. All us eventually quit dancing but stuck with sports all the way through high school. Many Sunday nights we would go to the gym and my dad would work with us to help us get better in our athletics while my mom would walk the halls. After, we would play hide and go seek in the gym. These evenings always brought us closer together as a family and effected our family culture. None of my sisters are very “girly”, me included. I believe this is because of the culture we grew up in. We would follow the older sisters’ example, so we turned out similar. We’re best friends!

I have a friend who comes from a family where her mother is American, and her father is Mexican. Because of this her family culture is rather unique. Their father speaks mostly in Spanish while their mom speaks mostly in English. All the children are bilingual. Their family celebrates both Mexican and American traditions. I have taken part in some of their Mexican festivities, and though it was completely foreign to me, it was really fun to experience. One distinct memory I have was participating in one of their Mexican Christmas traditions. They made a fancy bread that had a small, plastic baby Jesus in it. Whoever got the slice with baby Jesus was believed to have good luck. I unfortunately didn’t get the lucky slice.  It’s always exciting going over to their house and observing the differences between their family culture and the typical American family culture. I had never really thought about different cultures before I became friends with this family. I am thankful that I have been able to have that experience.

As well as familial origins, family culture can be influenced by social class. In preparation for class this week we were able to watch a video about a family that was desperately poor. The family consisted of a mother and two sons. They lived in a run-down trailer home and didn’t have a running car. The mother of this family had to walk ten miles to work each day. Her absence heavily influenced the family culture. To me, it seemed her oldest son became the head of the household. He wasn’t very respectful to his mother because he felt he was at the same level as she was, or even higher. This son aspired to finish school and go to college. However, he ended up dropping out and becoming just as poor as his mother. He followed the culture he had grown up in.

No family culture is better than another. They are all unique and beneficial in their own way. It is important not to judge another culture simply because it is different from your own. I am very thankful for my own family culture and hope to bring that culture into my future family.