Family what does that word mean to you. According to the dictionary it means “all the descendants of a common ancestor”. For some that would be true and for others their family is a group of close friends that are as close as family members would be. When I was young I had a smaller family and we were close, my paternal grandparents and aunt were at all birthday.s and Christmas’s. My fraternal family was much larger but we did not have as many gatherings.
My childhood was full of my immediate family with myself and 4 siblings, we always had someone to play, fight or work with. At one point in my growing up years my paternal grandparents and aunt passed away and our family became even smaller with just my parents and siblings. That was strange for all of us as that older generation was gone and there was just us.
As time went by my family started to grow again with marriage my family of 5 children increased to 10 people and with our parents that made 12. Now what seems to only be a few years later we have increase to 31 with 19 grandchildren for my parents. Our family continues to get closer as the years go by, the easily judged situations in the past just don’t seem to matter any more. We are growing in love for each other as time goes by.
Here are a couple of tips that I believe has helped to keep our family unit strong.
- Family and family gatherings are important.
- Forgive and move on, not everyone is going to like everything that each person does, there are 31 of us remember.
- You are always related to the same people no matter what, make the best of it.
Time changes everything and the family will change over time as well. Enjoy each stage of your life and your family for what it is.
Life live to the fullest ,
Kareen Karol
