Family Socialization

This week in class we have been talking a lot about family socialization and how that has impacted who we are today. When I was interviewing my parents I learned a lot about how they planned to raise me, what traditions they hoped I would carry on, and different personality traits they see in me that they also see in themselves. After talking to them, they basically told me a lot of things I expected to hear. Such as how they wanted me to grow up and be a good student, have a family, and be a good person. They hoped I would someday go to college and be successful and independent. But something that kept coming up in our discussion was the importance of family. In class I talked about my families tradition of getting together with my extended family on sundays for dinner. I have been doing this all my life and have never really thought about why. My dad pretty much just explained to me that it is really important to spend time with your family and if you don't make an effort to spend consistent time together, those relationships won't be as strong. I realized how truly lucky I am to have aunts, uncles, and cousins be such meaningful people in my life. But the answer that surprised me the most was the character traits my parents see both in me and themselves. It never really crossed my mind how similar I am to my parents. For starters, both my parents and I are the oldest child, so they see a sense of responsibility in me. I have always known that I am similar to my mom but I never realized how much of my dad I see in myself as well. We both have a tendency to be shy in new places, we both are very determined, and we both are always on time for things. Throughout this whole assignment, I learned a lot about myself and my family. I realized how close I actually am with my family and how similar I am to my parents.