Understanding How Personal Family Issues Affect the Family Structure, Case Study Example

Introduction

Families are expected to thrive in several levels of consideration especially in connection with the situations they have to deal with as one unit or group of people composed with common biological makeup but completely different psychological outlook. What makes a family as it is is the fact that it is considered to exist in contrast with the internal and external situations it is involved with. True to its sense, families are facing different forms of issues through the changing tides of time. It is the course of development that families are expected to take into consideration as modernization enters the society that affect the integrity of the family systems so much. As for the discussion that follows, understanding how single parenthood affects the overall function of the other members of the family shall be better presented. It could be noted that through this discussion, several elements of irregularities are to be identified as the description of the different dilemmas of a child and how a child grows becomes an evident course of change for most of the members involved. Identifying particular elements that consider the correlative effect of the situation with that of the outcome of connection between the members shall be better analyzed in this discussion. With the utilization of the relative consideration of a personal case, this presentation shall show how much family-irregularity create particular options of a well manifested course of difference on the part of the individuals concerned.

Understanding the Family System

The family system that thrives in the case to be considered is based on a single-parenthood set up. Left by the supposed “father” of the family, the mother takes on the challenge of consistently performing for the child and herself. The mother attends a full-time school schedule and works full-time as well. Considering the fact that she has some responsibilities to herself as well, she tends to extend the time and the efforts she place into the situation to be able to comprehensively perform her duties to her child.  What makes this setup complicated is the fact that the mother needs to tend to several responsibilities which at some point forces her to set aside some of her most important role, being a mother to her son. True, with the many tasks that need to be completed in a day, the mother has to settle in putting the child in day care center for several hours each day and have so much little time left to consider bonding with the young one. Everything seems to be so busy as thinking about bills and other financial responsibilities along with the need to complete a degree comes into account. Nonetheless, the mother knows that all these needs to be done to assure her child’s better future.

Naturally, the actual situation does pose a problem especially in balancing elements of connection with the child. Children need to be given proper attention especially during their formative years. At some point, due to the occurrence between the child’s parents [in this case], that particular part of growth is somewhat sacrificed in place of a more considerable process of finding a finer course of living for the remaining members of the family. The sacrifices the mother has to make specifically compromises several things that are definitely considered essential for the family’s growth and integrity (Harner, 1999).

Explaining through Assessments

Following the circumplex model of family and marital relations, it could be analyzed that there are three dimensions that define a family’s makeup. These dimensions include cohesion, flexibility and communication. Understandably, the aspect of cohesion or togetherness in the family case discussed herein takes on a strong turn especially when it comes to the time-strains that exist between the mother and her son due to the many responsibilities that the mother has to cover. Many families are taking on the same course today. With single-parenting becoming a common course of living especially in highly urbanized areas, women are usually faced with the challenge of manifesting a good source of development for their children while they also tend to some personal needs they ought to give attention to [in this case, gaining higher level of education]. Juggling several responsibilities all in one time makes a woman simply accept the situation that she has been into and create her way around such matters. Likely, the course of development one takes specifically imposes on her capability to make amends on the possible shortcomings she might have to her children. In the case presented herein, the mother tries her best to cover the time that has been lost between her and her son through spending as much time as she could with him in the evening. It seems to be so little time, but to compensate for the losses; the mother tries to make sense of it. This is better explained through the second and third dimensions of family makeup namely the flexibility and communication aspects that provide an elemental source of development for the young child.

In line with the Calgary Family Assessment Method, families ought to be identified through its structural, developmental and functional dimension which is also supported by the Friedman Family Assessment Model (Mattox, 1990). Both assessments adhere to the fact that it is integral for a family to be able to adjust to how situations turn out to be between them and their members. Likely, with the turn of events, family members intend to adjust to the situation through accommodating changes and living with the said irregularities of living hence giving way to acceptance and living alongside the possible failures. The members of the family tend to embrace what has already become of the situation and make a conceivable definition of growth that makes it easier for each individual to cope up with the issues of separation. This approach makes it easier for each member to accept what has happened and accustom their lifestyle to it. Making the most use of the time that is available, such considerations to modern development come in handy especially in helping the children cope up with the changes that they ought to be accustomed to live along with (Schneider, 1984).

Conclusion

Family setups take different forms. Due to the changes that modern living offers today, several families have to adjust to the different issues that modernity presents (Gilroy, 2000). Undeniably, there are instances when families fail to contend with such changes and somehow have to manage the different assumptions and considerations of rearranging their lives according to how things turned out between the primary members of the unit. These elemental factors of familial function of course affect the members individually. Nonetheless, being able to successfully accustom their lives to the occurrence of such irregularities create a more conceivable course of defiance that makes the problems a little less complicated to deal with and the solutions much easier to accept.

References

Harner, Michael.(1999). “Scarcity, the Factors of Production, and Social Evolution,” in Population. Ecology, and Social Evolution, Steven Polgar, ed. Mouton Publishers: the Hague.

Gilroy, Paul. (2000) [Identity Belonging and the Critique of Pure Sameness] in Gilroy, Paul (2000) Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Ch. I.3, pp. 97–133.

Mattox, William R., Jr (1990), “America’s family time famine“, Children Today.

Schneider, David .(1984).A Critique of the Study of Kinship. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 182.