Family

A family consists of two or more people, who live together, care about each other and share emotional ties. Each family consists of many generations. My great-great grandparents on my mom’s, mother’s side were the Townsends and the Stuarts and my great –grandparents were the Bush and Payne’s on my mom’s fathers side. My great-great grandparents on my dad’s side are unknown because he was adopted. My great-great grandparents, great- grandparents, as well as my grandparents on my mother’s side of the family all formed nuclear families. They married within their own endogamy, lived together all of their lives, raised their children, and all were dual earner couples. They were able to accomplish being non-local by buying their own land and homes and were monogamous. My grandparents had an egalitarian family system where they were self employed and shared power and authority equally in all decision making. There is a history of a long life expectancy because the majority of them lived to be 80-90 years of age.

My mom has been married twice within her own endogamy group, but didn’t select either partner by applying exchange theory. When she married she didn’t consider maximizing the rewards and minimizing costs. Her first marriage was only 2 ½ years in length. My mom was also in a dual earner couple relationship, neo-local and monogamous at that time. My mom had one daughter by that marriage. My step-sister Christine has a bachelor’s degree from Elmira College and has always worked full time. Her marriage lasted for 7 years because her husband was not monogamous. My sister divorced and now has a cohabitation relationship with her boyfriend Aaron.

My mom than married my dad and again she was in a dual earner couple relationship, neo-local and monogamous. My parents were married for 17 years and there were two of us girls, Michelle and myself. The marriage ended in divorce but it was not a no-fault divorce it was because of intimate partner violence. My dad is an alcoholic and can be physically, emotionally and financially abusive. Because of his abusiveness he lost visitation with my sister Michelle and me so I don’t really know my dad that well.

My dad now lives in a cohabitation relationship and has had no other children. My mom single parented us since I was about 6 years old. She graduated from Binghamton University with her master’s in gerontology and works full time. My mom is also in the sandwich generation and is a baby boomer. She cares for my sister Michelle, me and my 87 year old grandmother, her mother.

My sister Michelle has a master’s degree in government from American University in Washington D.C. She has lived in D.C. for three years, but she is now in the boomerang generation. She left Washington D.C because she could not find a job in government and returned home to live due to high living expenses in D.C., college loans and is looking for a permanent job in this area.

I do have extended family that I see often. I have two aunts and two uncles and four 1st cousins all from my mom’s side of the family. My dad is a twin and his brother is married and they have three children. I have one aunt and one uncle and three 1st cousins on my dad’s side that I never see.

I am a full time student at Corning Community College and still live at home full time. I have a boyfriend who also goes to CCC and lives with his parents in Elmira. I plan to go in the fall to further my education.