Chapter 13

On page 361 of the textbook I found interesting statements about family structure and function. If you look under connecting structure and function, in the second paragraph something caught my eye "shared parenting decreases the risk of maltreatment and make it more likely that children will have someone to read to them, check their homework, invite their friends over, buy them new clothes, and save for their education." When I read this I couldn't help but to automatically think about my life. Before i joined this class, I has psych classes before and only thought of it as the study of the mind and people's behaviors...and I never really thought that psych could answer my questions about my family and our function. I am connecting a lot with the last two chapters because I am the outside family, the one they talk about having problems and facing what happens to the kids after certain parenting. Since I can't see my class, I figured it would be interesting just to show how psych is really benefiting me and how it relates to my life. Going back to the quote I said in the beginning, really made me think of my family. My family has been separated since I was the age of 6 and when I was little I barely got read to or expected it, I don't remember ever when my parents asked to look at my homework or offered to both use their money to buy me clothes, and lastly pay for my education or even save for it. Since my parents weren't sharing their parenting this reflected and changed how I grew up and how things would of been different if they stayed together. This part of the text reflects and promotes how crucial it is to have family function, because when you do...the kids will achieve in school with fewer psychological problems. This again relates to my family because since my family hasn't functioned my whole life I did not do well in school until I accepted my family's departure which was around sophomore year of high school; my whole grade school career my grades were nothing but lacking because of the toll my family function had on me. It is just crazy to me how psychology really makes you think about your life. I never have had my life questions answered because I just thought no one knew, even through research about how kids are effected due to their parents. It's just mind blowing, I know it may sound corny , but when I was little everyone was achieving but not me...and I never knew why. When I was little I never knew why things ended up the way they were including myself, my behavior, my psychological mindset. I never knew why I did not have emotional and academic support from one single parent. Now after reading this chapter...I do.