WHAT DOES FAMILY MEAN TO YOU? | CONTEST.

Family generally means a group of people who are born or related or neither of the two that live together and relate in that sense. There are various types of families the most common being nuclear and extended families.

Family to me means people who will try to be there for you in situations that may prove difficult and maybe hard to handle on your own. Truthfully, that is what family has been to me. I really did not spend most of my time in a regular family as my parents were not around therefore I had to spend time in various relatives’ homes.

However, when my parents were not around everyone from my family who could, came through to make sure I had all the basic needs covered. They made sure I got really good education, had a home etc. However, much as they did all this for me, I wouldn’t lie that you feel like you belong 100% to the family.

You know deep inside that you belong to another family it’s just not existing at the moment. The element of full conditional love may be not existing or even though it is there, it is not as it would have been with your really family, as you have to be grateful at all times. All material things may be given but that love that is supposed to be given by parents may be unavailable as people are working hard to maintain both their real families and then you to.

Truthfully, it is really understandable as it draining on their side, therefore to answer the question whether I belong to a family or not, I would say to a certain extent yes and to a certain extent no. Truthfully this kind of family would not necessarily be ideal as you are just managing most of the time. If it is the only option you have, you are just grateful that people are at least caring for you as the other options would be way worse.

You are just managing in the sense that sometimes you have to prove your worth either in academics, housework or something. You have to be grateful at all times because you know you have been given a second chance. This is good but it can have its negative impacts in that you feel that you can’t express negative emotions as you feel you have been blessed to have this chance and you never want say anything that will jeopardize the opportunity.

In such a family setting, you have to be very careful of your words you say and your actions as they can be easily interpreted as ungratefulness or as being a bad child. This may force one to conform to what is considered acceptable and lose the real essence of themselves. This can also make you feel guilty as a person because someone has done so much for you, so how can you feel negative emotions towards them.

To improve my family, I think I would take all of us for therapy both individually and as a family because much as an aesthetic picture is okay to be maintained I feel like all have to deal with personal pains so that love can come from a place of fullness and not necessarily as a duty.

Advice to other families would be to be open and talk about their emotions whether positive or negative and encourage children to speak up. Where there are children that are being looked after that are not necessarily biological children, the same grace should be extended to them, and they should be shown unconditional love to as they will feel empty if all their physical and material needs are catered for but they really don’t feel loved.

I am grateful to my family and all they have done for me and despite the way I feel I want you to know you have done your best and I am grateful and truthfully I would not change it because I feel like it has made me a better person as I am more empathetic and it has also given me answers to some of my weaknesses like preserving my boundaries and now I know where to start from when I am tackling such issues.

Thank you for reading.❤️❤️

I invite @kyara2, @mariez and @moureenbronia to participate.