Blog #4

What are some characteristics of a good family life? I think it varies between different families, but generally, there are a lot of characteristics of a good family. The most important characteristic would be love. Every family definitely needs love, because without it you are just a group of people who are stuck together because of who you were born to. It is important to feel loved in a family, or else you feel like something is missing from you. Other characteristics of a good family are appreciation, support, respect, and values; I could go on and on. Appreciation is very important in a family because in a family everybody should try and help everybody out and once you have received help you need to recognize it and appreciate what those people are doing for you. If you don’t appreciate your family, one day they could not be there for you when you need them the most. It is important to feel appreciated, or else eventually you might just give up because you don’t see the point. Children need to appreciate their parents and realize everything they have done for them while growing up. Supporting one another in a family is important because it gives people the courage to do what they want to do. Everybody needs support in their lives and who better to receive it from then your own family. Respect is obviously a big characteristic of a good family, because if you don’t have respect for one another, there is no structure. Moms and dads need to respect one another so everything is fair in the house, brothers and sisters need to respect each other, and parents need to respect their children as well as children respect their parents. If there is no respect, there is probably no peace and the family structure is probably a little off. Family values is a good characteristic because when a family has all the same values, everybody can be on the same page and cooperate together, such as sitting down to dinner together every night and spending one night a week playing a game or watching a movie, something like that. Family should always come first.
To balance a career and a family life is very tough. I don’t have a family of my own, I still live with my parents, but trying to work, go to school and spend time with my family/friends is very tough. It is all about organization and prioritizing. To be able to balance a family and a career, I think you need to have all the things listed in the characteristics of a good family life. You have to have a lot of structure and a good schedule. People who balance a career and a family need to realize when it is time to stop working and time to start being with the family and vice versa. It is very important to remember that family is first when balancing a career and a family, although I know that is not always easy, but it is also important to realize that you don’t need to be at every family function either, that it is ok to miss that dinner occasionally or that soccer game.
If you don’t have the characteristics listed in the good family characteristics, a balance between a career and a family can be very difficult to achieve. If you don’t have a support system at home, who is going to be there to help you whenever you need it, you aren’t going to want to do anything. Also, if you don’t have a supportive or understanding employer, that can also make it very difficult to achieve that balance.
Changes in traditional gender roles have made work and family issues more complex, because more men are starting to stay home and take care of the family, while women are going off to work. The expectations of women and men are changing and some people do not know how to adapt to them. With women working, adjustments need to be made in companies so when these women are pregnant and about to have their babies, they know it is ok to leave for a little bit.
Employers need to start realizing that women and men are both going to work now and a majority of these people have families and are going to need time off or a more flexible schedule sometime in their lives, so they need to start adjusting their policies. All companies should adopt workplace flexibility. Employers need to put themselves in their employees shoes and realize one day that could be them as well. They need to listen to their employees, find out their needs and wants and then compromise and come up with a plan.
Having support from family members, workers or neighbors make balancing priorities so much easier because you have this sort of team behind you that will help you wherever you need it. When you have support you know that there are people that are there for you to step in. They give you the courage to keep going and if you can’t do something, you know there is somebody there that probably can.