Week 14 Post 1

While reading Chapter 22, I really enjoyed learning about familism. Before reading this chapter I never even know there was such a term. According to Berger (2010) familism is the belief that all family members should support one another. Family members support each other by sacrificing individual success as well as freedom to preserve family unity. Personally, I believe that family members should not be forced to act this way rather family members should want to forgo their own desires if it better benefits another family member. Looking back, I feel like my parents made lots of sacrifices in their lives so that they could spend more time with me and my siblings. In addition, they also took time out of their schedules to take us to different activities and events that we wanted to go to. As I think back to this time in my life, I begin to realize that familism is easier for parents to do than for children to do for their parents or for siblings to do for other siblings. I remember having to miss one of my friend’s birthday parties because my family and I were away on our annual family vacation. However, now that I am older I realize that family is more important than anything else and should really come first. That being said, I believe that familism should be equal between family members and family members should want to make personal sacrifices if they know it will truly benefit another family member.