Personal Narrative: An Interview With A Parent

I wait at the door. I put on my solemn, grim face, I cannot let these children see me as a soft women. I am anything but that, well I guess I am, but we all need to hide our inner emotions some how. My useless husband, Hans, mumbles, “I see the car”. We step outside, most people think Hans and I are crazy for opening our home to these two children, but every little bit of money that we can earn helps. Plus, they can help with the laundry, I think and smile.

They looked forward to coming home and passing the time with their loved ones. But now, ever since there has been such a rise of popularity in technology, some people would rather be anywhere except with their families. Why would you want to sit down and have some boring conversation with your parents or play some stupid family board game when you could be blowing up aliens and racing Ferrari's on your X-Box? Technology makes everything more exciting and this makes your family life seem comparatively dull. Our world is just so busy and crammed with exciting diversions, that there is simply not enough time to relax and pass the time away with your family.

   The emphasis on family in America is decreasing. Divorce rates, single-parent households, and children born out of wedlock are all increasing. Furthermore, instead of the network of aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and other relatives that was prevalent in early America, Americans today are more distant from their extended family. As sociologist David Elkind said in a 1996 interview with Educational Leadership, "Instead of togetherness, we have a new focus on autonomy. The individual becomes more important than the family" (4). This means that one of the basic needs of humanity, belongingness and love, is very likely going unfilled in many people.

In the 1990s, 2000s, and even the current decade, there has been a big swap in family life and traditional values. What started out in the 1950s as a traditional nuclear family is still changing into so many different ideas. Divorce rates increase and it is no longer something people are necessarily ashamed of when they do get divorced. Many people will even go through divorce more than once. There is an increase in second marriages and having step-siblings and half-siblings.

In the 1800’s women stayed at home and done the cleaning, cooking, and tended to the children while the husband took care of the harder chores around the house. The male would normally go out and feed the livestock, tend to broken stuff around

Annoyed at this, I turned once again and lay on my back. I took a deep

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary the definition of family is “the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children; any of various social units differing from but regarded as equivalent to the traditional family”. The ideal of what a traditional family entails have changed since the last few decades. What happened to the family structure? Where did traditions go? How does television impact the family structure? Due to societal changes, the impact of divorce, and media influence, the traditional family structure has diminished because of less cohesion and more emphasizes on individuality.

For the first parent interview, I interviewed my friend Randy. The interview took place in the living room of my house. His daughter was present but was playing with my sister at the time of the interview. Randy is the father of a toddler girl who is three years old but will turn four soon. Randy was born in 1992, he is not married but is cohabiting with the mother of the child and his parents’ home. In addition, Randy works for a medical supplies company and has only completed high school. Moreover, when he had his first child and only child, he was 21 years old.

The roles of women today are somewhat different and somewhat similar. Women get up and go to their jobs or school and still take care of the children. Most women have to cook dinner, wash clothes, clean the house, help pay the bills, and anything else that the man doesn’t want to do. I must say that times have changed a lot. Men are actually cooking and cleaning to help the women with chores. Also women are doing a man’s job, such as construction, doctors, lawyers, firemen, and police work. Women are not being beaten for disobeying the husband and divorces are granted every day. Women no longer have to live in those awful conditions of control. I believe the man helping out around the house is great because it brings the family closer. I feel like the genders are pretty much equal in today’s society.

Eventually if the family was wealth enough nannies were brought in to take care of the house with the money makers were gone. Eventually leading to where the mothers weren’t necessarily doing their duties according to the men. Most men had trouble getting use to the idea of the women not being home having dinner already served. Then the 1980s to the 1990s you started to see the men cooking and cleaning helping the women out while they were out working, but their job was still to respect the men. Even though this was happening some men were still in though it was demeaning. The work force was a man’s

My interviewee is a second generation immigrant with one parent who was born in El Salvador and the other who has Mexican roots but was born in the United States. For the purposes of confidentiality my interviewee will be addressed as Ana from here on out. In this interview paper I will discuss the experiences that Ana faced growing up in a tri-racial household. I will also evaluate her experiences regarding assimilation to the lectures and reading assigned through out this course.

However, have you ever questioned what technology is doing to the structure that made up

Since I was a kid, I had a ton of responsibilities, cleaning up after myself, doing chores, managing to not fight with my brother, although we fought all day everyday, but you know, it happens. One thing that I didn't know wasn't normal was parenting your parent. I go to school do all my class work and during recess and lunch I listened to all the other kids talk about going to the park after school and eating dinner together with their parents. When I got home from school, I had to do my homework and then take care of my mother. Bring her things she needed such as food, water, help her with many other simple everyday activities. Of course I wasn't the only one who was her “little helper” as she put it, my dad helped her and my older brother by two years,

"Never forget the past…because it may haunt you forever. Regret all the bad things…cherish the good things. Look ahead always…but don't let the bad things from the past get in your mind." As a young child, there were so many incidents in my life that made me become the person I am today. There were rough times as well as good times. If I were to tell you all of them, I would remember half of them. I think some of my incidents really had some impact, and some were just simple ways of life. To tell you the truth, the incident that had the most impact on me has to be when my real father left me at the age of three. I never knew my father. I mean being a baby, you really have no experience or recognition of somebody else.

Technology has changed the relationships of families. Distracted by their laptops, TV’s, smartphones, and video games, families can’t have a friendly