Week 2: Roles in the Family

 This week we talked more about the details of the family. We looked deeper into the systems each family has and what roles each family member plays. I think roles are a huge deal in families. Every person has a role whether they know it or not. In my family, we like to joke around a lot, and my 4 sisters and I decided we were going to assign roles when we were little. We gave my oldest sister the role of the responsible sister. She was the one who was always taking care of us and never got in trouble. She had good grades and every teacher loved her. We gave the role of my second oldest sister, the smart sister. We had to say smart sister because we weren’t allowed to say weird sister or else we would get in trouble. She never struggled in school and saw herself superior to the other children. She could count to one hundred before kindergarten. She loved to create weird combinations of They all decided I was the jokester/always getting in trouble. I loved to make jokes, but a lot of the time it was my downfall. I was always getting in trouble for going too far. I spent a lot of time in time-out growing up. We told the two youngest sisters that they unfortunately were not old enough for a role/personality. Kind of sad, but that’s my family for you haha. Anyway, as we grew older we still continued to joke around and talk about how these roles still stay in place. I was always the sibling who was teasing or joking, so I felt like I had to play that role whenever I was home. After I moved out of the house I grew up a lot and matured. I still like to make jokes, but I am not the disobedient rude little girl I once was. There was a time where I was giving my sister her birthday present and had to say why I loved her. I said something sincere, and my whole family was shocked about how I didn’t give a backhanded compliment. This made me so sad because I did not want to be the mean sister, and I knew I wasn’t, but I was scared that’s how they were going to view me forever. Because I was assigned this role in my family, I felt like I had to act a certain way to keep it. I have seen the roles in my sisters develop while they have grown up. The roles are somewhat the same, but it is more grown up. My oldest sister is still the responsible one, but mostly because she is about to have a baby. My other older sister is extremely smart and does very well in college. Her superior complex gets her in trouble with some people sometimes. I still make jokes, but I know how to not cross the line. My little sisters finally earned their personalities haha. One of them is the most chill person ever. She is so relaxed and doesn’t show much emotion about things, and she doesn’t really get upset. My youngest sister has the biggest heart, and has all the sympathy that the rest of us lack. She is definitely the emotional one. My mom has the role of the nurturer and the main caregiver while we were growing up. My dad would go to work and my mom would stay at home with us. My dad has the role of provider. He is also the peacemaker in my family. I have never seen my dad angry. He is the kindest person there is. There are lots of different roles that family members have, and it can make a major impact on the way people behave. I just think that it is super interesting!