The meaning of family varies from place to place and from culture to culture. Ideally I never thought about what a perfect family would be because each family has a totally different dynamic from the next. If I had to guess, I'd say it would be a family that, despite everyone's flaws, is still able to come together and work towards a mutual understanding and agreement based on everyone's opinions. Although there is no all-encompassing definition that describes every type of family at all levels. For example, in places like China children may be raised separately from their father and mother in a group of women, but still consider themselves family. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In fact, there are more variations than ever on the modern family structure, including nontraditional families. Some of which are single-parent families, blended families, unrelated individuals living cooperatively, and same-sex couples, among others. Unfortunately, family guidelines have been slow to catch up with the changing trends of modern lifestyles. Different social orders also play a formative role in family life. A given culture or society helps define what values ​​families find important. There are several ways this could be addressed; however the three most commonly seen are financially, behaviorally, and intellectually (cognitively). Financially, society influences us by bombarding our families with suggestions about wants and needs that we may or may not be able to afford. These range from housing choices, to school choices for college, to shopping options, places to go, and things to do that we should spend money on from our budget. If this constant exposure did not occur, perhaps the household would make less biased decisions about how to spend its money. Intellectually, if education, material acquisition, or spirituality have specific values, they can then help shape what the family believes is important. . At the same time, society helps shape family identity in terms of how the family will represent its identity and sense of self. If society offered a higher quality of life in which our quality was valued, we would do very in-depth analyzes of where we want society to go and what role we play in it. We also ask ourselves how we can help improve the quality of our social status. This would include looking for benchmarks, rationales, and recent research that helps us make our surroundings sufficient both qualitatively and quantitatively. Behaviorally, society influences us through the dynamic division of individuals and groups based on preferences, race, language, commonalities, religion and culture. ethnicity. If you live in a place where the customs are not at all what you are used to, you will behaviorally choose to join them or radically isolate yourself from the group. Since the latter is not the most likely choice, it is likely that one way or another, no matter how independently you live, you will still acquire a mannerism or two from your immediate social circle such as accent, drawl, idioms , intonations or customs. . Another example of how society shapes family life is that the diverse nature of society in terms of its representation of what is and/or what should be is something that families make strong judgments about for or against. For example, if the company considers a particular actionor behavior as “incorrect”, the family finds itself in a situation where it must choose whether to accept society's judgment or to rebel against it and embrace that action or behavior. I myself was raised by parents with values ​​and beliefs on opposite sides of the spectrum. This fact in itself was already a huge barrier within our family dynamic, not to mention the fact that we were an interracial family in a state where only 2% of the total population is minority. As a child I was ostracized for who I was. It was never like I fit in with both sides of my family, because on one side I had to "hood" but on the other I was too loose or free-spirited. I was never enough of the other, and that blame was placed on the opposing parent who constantly caused tension in my relationship with other members of my family. I come from a broken home of abuse, addiction and divorce, where my parents, after almost 5 years of separation, never seem to be on the same page. As the oldest of the four children they had together, I always had the burden of carrying everyone else's emotional torment and discomfort over the situations we were put in. My father, being old-fashioned and conservative, has put a huge wedge in between how we function with each other. My mother being the exact opposite of this is able to better understand my need to dress differently than what would be considered appropriate for my family or to be allowed to put holes all over my body at free will. Socially this key issue was deemed acceptable by society itself, because it was a creative way of expressing myself without harming others. However, this was a problem for my father because he was raised by parents with Southern beliefs and morals that led him to have a more reserved or closed opinion about what was acceptable. Intellectually, my family dynamic is much the same as I've already described. In total there are about four generations alive at this time. What I've noticed is that the older I get, the more closed off or less receptive people tend to become, with the exception of a few minorities. Another factor contributing to this is the very different upbringing my parents received as children. On one side we have the parent who grew up in a strict Christian home with the intense values ​​of family and respect to remain compliant with what your elders deemed acceptable. On the other hand, there is the parent who grew up in a single-parent home where as a child he or she had to mature too early because there was no support system. This played an important role in their adult lives and how they chose to raise their children. While their separate upbringings played a role in how they created their own family dynamic, so did several changes in the nature of how society worked. An example of this would be the need to purchase and/or own material goods for my mother. Since she grew up she wasn't given the luxury of nice things or materials for dinner, to this day she puts a lot of effort into the newest or latest thing to make sure it's a new gadget, a new clothing line, or plates, etc. While my father is always the minimal bear and that's it, he is good at following the structure and ways of those who came before you. The latter played a huge role in how my parents separated. Financially, society played a huge role in what we did and what was considered acceptable within my two separate families. I know that living with my mother has always been a lot.