The Importance of a Family
A family is an essential social unit that helps shape an individual’s behavior and attitude towards life and other social activities. Individuals depend on their environment to learn how things should be done or dealt with when they occur in life. An individual’s learning is done by imitating their immediate environment, which is their family. In general, this essay will focus on the effects that family has on an individual’s life, what changes can be made, and the benefits of such changes.
The most powerful thing that I learned from the reflection of this class’s activities is that an individual’s behavior and attitude are instilled in them from a young age by observing family activities. Through social learning, the type of environment that an individual is exposed to determines what he or she becomes in the future and how they bring up their family when that time comes. It is vital to ensure that individuals become better people in the future; that is why they should be exposed to a positive family environment.
The idea and fact that affected me most are that the life of an individual and how they will behave for the rest of their lives depend on how they are brought up by their family. The success or failure depends on how their families shape them during their childhood, and the things that they are exposed to as children. No one is born violent, a criminal, a drug, and alcohol abuser; all these are learned from social exposure.
I would like to see the contemporary American family setting change by being the best example for their children. The families should change by ensuring that all the negative things children can learn from them are eliminated. Things such as family-based violence, drug abuse, and criminal activities should stop being carried out in the presence of the young ones to prevent them from imitating such actions. If these changes are adopted in the family, it will benefit the individuals by ensuring they are brought up in a peaceful environment where they can learn to be responsible and successful people in the future.
These changes can be arrived at by conducting civic education or public awareness to the community on the adverse effects that exposing the children to negative family behaviors. On the other hand, the government can put in place legislation that ensures children are taken care of and are exposed to a positive family environment. With that then people in the community will learn of the importance of having a positive environment to bring up children, which ensures that society lives in peace.
It is important to note that learning is done through imitation, and when one is exposed to a negative environment, that is what they will imitate, and it becomes part of them. Parents or families should strive to ensure that the environment they bring up their family in is conducive and influences positive growth.