Family Cultures

   What is the definition of culture? Culture is the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group. It is the values and beliefs or a group of people. Everyone comes from different cultures and has their own family culture. In my family culture we are all really close. I have about 40 cousins on my dad’s side of the family and know each one of them. We have huge reunions and have family newsletters every 6 months or so. Even though my immediate family lives in Washington and most of my extended family lives in Utah or Idaho we still plan trips to visit each other and try to make it to significant events such as weddings and missionary homecomings.

   Every one has different family cultures and family cultures can change depending on where life takes you, if it be a family member passion away, you getting married, or starting a family. Family cultures include what family traditions you have. When I think of family traditions I think about holidays and big events. In my immediate family only one brother is married but it will change when everyone is married and they start their own traditions family culture changes. It is a really good thing to have traditions that we can pass down to our children and can include new traditions when we get married.

  You borrow traditions from others; you see how their family culture is and how you can incorporate some of what theirs is in your traditions. There are many aspects from my immediate family that I want to keep. I want to install hard work and motivation in my children. I want my posterity to value education and to value religion. One aspect that was really important for my immediate family is the importance of education. Before coming to BYUI I was able to go to my community college and get my AA and I learned so much from doing so. My 3 siblings before me had done this as well and had instilled in me the importance of getting schooling done and working harder when it comes to getting an education.

  Every one has different aspects of their family that they want to keep or maybe get rid of when they start their own families. Most people have traditions that they would love to keep and to bring into their new life but some would love to get rid of them and start new ones. This has to do with family culture and how it can change and you can have a new family culture when your life begins to change.