The Importance of Family

In this post, I am going to be writing about the importance of family. The reason why I wanted to write this post is after a conversation with my girls a few weeks ago. We went out for dinner on our monthly girl’s night out and the conversation turned to our families. One of my closest friends’ fathers has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and even though his prognosis is positive, it still hit us all like a ton of bricks. As we sat together and consumed buckets of wine, we got very soppy and teary thinking about our parents, grandparents and other family members.

 

 

We all acknowledged how much you change your perspective of your family changes throughout your life. In your teens, your parents are a source of constant embarrassment and you long to get away from them. But then when you reach your twenties and later, you develop a love and respect for them that wasn’t there before. Then as you pass into your thirties and beyond, you crave time with them because you begin to see them age. This made me personally think about the importance of family and I wanted to share my views with you here in a post.

 

About my family.

The reason why I wanted to write this post in particular was because of my parents. My mum and dad met when they were 15 years old. By the time they were 21 they welcomed my older sister and at 22 they got married. A few years later, when they were 24, they welcomed me. However, when I was just a few weeks old, they got divorced. My sister says that it is my fault because they literally divorced 6 weeks after I was born, but they have assured me that was not the case. Regardless, I was born to the most amazing parents. Them not being a couple (or us having next to no money) didn’t stop them from giving my sister and I the best upbringing that children could have.

 

The dynamic of my family.

Beyond my parents, I am from a gigantic family. My father is one of 9 children, and my mother is one of 4 children. Each of their siblings have had at least 2 children and now my generation are reproducing like rabbits. I am one of the only people in my family that doesn’t have any children of my own. But that never bothers me because there are so many of us, there is always a baby to steal when I’m broody. Coming from an enormous family with lot of cousins has always been something that I adore.

 

Why my family is so important to me.

I think the reason why I wanted to write about the importance of family is because of what it means to me. There are two stand out things in my mind of why I adore my family so much. The first is that there are bloody loads of us. Because of that, there is always somebody that you can lean on. Plus, even though there are loads of us, we all know one another deeply. The other thing is that we have come a long way as a family. My parents’ generation had nothing and now we are all at a place where things are good. We all know the struggle and the hustle that we went through and it is amazing to be in this amazing place together.

 

What my family has helped me through.

One of the most noticeable things that my family has helped me through is my mental health. I am really transparent here that I struggle with OCD and anxiety. My family throughout everything are my rocks. Whether it is my immediate family, grandparents, aunties, uncles, etc. They are all fantastic. They ask me deep questions to make sure that I am still in a good place, and they don’t just take my surfaces answers as gospel. But not only that, as a family we help one another with anything. Whether it is money troubles, childcare, everything. We help each other, always.

 

Why should you lean on your family.

The thing with family is that they are there to love you regardless of what happens. God knows how many times in my life I have messed up and every time they have been there. Normally the gently tease me, get me through it with humor and endless amounts of alcohol. No matter what, they are always there. Your family should be your support network and I am so fortunate that mine are exactly that. But if your family parents that, your family are who you make it. They aren’t always blood connection. I have friends which are more like family, and I adore that.

 

As always, I hope that you guys enjoyed this post. As I said at the beginning, family is something that your view alters on. You go through the different stages of life, you will realise that your perspective has changed. The crazy thing is that most of my friends have children of their own and one day they will sit in a parallel situation and talk to their friends about our generation and how much they adore them. Everything with family is certainly full circle. I feel like I have always loved and respected my parents, but now I am almost 30 I think of the sacrifices they made, the love they gave my sister and I, not to mention the continued support they provide us with now. That is my round up on the importance of family. As always, I would love to hear your take on this.