The Family... In Theory

This week, we learned about the four main family theories: symbolic, conflict, exchange, and systems.  We talked about the Family Systems Theory the most in depth. 

The main idea is that there are continuous circular interactions where each member is responding to his or her perception of the other member.  There are family systems and family subsystems.  The subsystems can be any member of the family with any other member(s) of the family.  Within these subsystems there are more subsystems and boundaries.  Some boundaries are rigid, others are permeable or fused, while others can be wide open.  This sounds a bit complicated at first, but when you think about it, it's really rather simple.

Today we had an example of a family situation where we had three members of the class act out the roles of father, mother, and child.  I volunteered to be the child in the scenario.  The hypothetical situation was that the child is often having asthma attacks with the mother being very protective of her and the father not usually around during these episodes. 

Over the course of about thirty minutes, we found that the wife/mother was more involved with the child than the husband/father.  The point of all this was to emphasize that a family is only as strong as the marriage relationship.  At least, that is the point that I got out of all of it.  Bro Williams asked me (as the child in the situation) how I liked it when I saw my father's arm around my mother.  I had to think of my parents and realized that they have always held hands and sat close to one another.  That has definitely impacted the way I think of marriage relationships. 

My conclusion from class today was that I always want to be in love with my husband.  Where we still sit and laugh together after our children have grown.