The family unit

The family unit I like the sound of this category and there are some excellent and heartwarming reviews written here. I know that my own thoughts will not be up to the standard of many of them, but would just like to share them with you, for what they are worth! Family means different things to different people, some rely absolutely on having their love and support and credit them for them turning into the people that they have become. Others may feel that family have been a strain on them, or caused them to have issues that they wish that they hadn't had. Others still may never have had any real family, and yearn for it while realising that ...  Read the complete review

If we are talking about the family then why not start with the names of our kids. The annual most popular boys and girls names list is out once again and there are few changes, Olivia usurping Ruby at the top and Jack still king for his 13th straight year. In fact the boys top ten is unchanged, soap operas and movie stars not influencing Britain's sensible white-collar classes. The list still reads like the school register at independent schools! Ruby is the surprise of the pack, not even in the top 100 in the mid nineties. Zak, of course, has just entered the top 100. The list never really changes as the middle-class-and those who would like to be ...  Read the complete review

How have I been brought up? ... My parents had me at quite a young age (well it was young for the time), my mum was 19 (just turned by a few days) and my dad was 22. Mum got married at 7 months pregnant, as then it was shameful to have baby out of wedlock. We lived in a 2 bed flat until I was around 3, we moved to a 3 bed house as mum had fallen pregnant with my brother. 5 years later she had my second brother, and then 2 years after that she was pregnant again, so we had to move to an even bigger house - which is why we moved to west wales. Mum and dad are still together, and are still going strong. I am studying criminology and sociology. I had to do ...  Read the complete review

I have throughout my adult life been privileged enough to see many different forms of family life some good examples and some not so good, even though I do believe that a lot of how you grow up and develop as an individual is impacted hugely by the family unit and the type of upbringing we have I do not believe for one second that most individuals who says that they have had a bad upbringing can not change themselves for the better and make their new family unit within their adult life A much better experience. As a child I was mainly bought up by my grandparents, up until the age of four both my mum and dad worked full time and I spent every day at my ...  Read the complete review

We're in the middle of the Easter holidays as I write this. A period which is traditionally associated with families getting together, both to commemorate loss and also to celebrate new life. For that reason, it feels like an appropriate time to record my thoughts on what family truly means to me. To try and explain how my appreciation of the value of family has developed and evolved over the passing years I've split this piece into the four separate decades from the 70's right through to the present day. Particularly during my "adult" life over the last 15 years or so, my personal family unit has been through some extraordinary changes. ...  Read the complete review