The Ideal Family

[bumble_bee91]

So, I had an interesting experience in child development last night. In class we were all asked to draw our definition of the ideal family. Now, I was kind of confused at first. In fact, we all were. The teacher said just to draw what we think the ideal family was, not ours or what we want to have, but the ideal family. I just kind of sat back and watched everyone start drawing. The teacher walked by me on the way to the trash can and said she would be interested as to what I was going to draw. I just laughed and said I was completely blank. She said there was no such thing as blank, so I leaned forward and stared at my paper.
Then, I started to think. What is the ideal family? The family with a white picket fence ran through my mind and I snorted. Then, I started to think about my family. My family is mix matched. My parents are separated, I have adopted cousins, and a sister I have adopted into the family through an 'Aunt.' I started thinking about each one them; Joseph with his wacky and curious personality, Zach with his love of games, puzzles and books, Kristina in all her beautiful craziness, Ben a rebellious teenager with a heart of gold and fluffy beard, Jeremy who has a love of clothes and is the sweetest little guy you'll ever meet, James, a quirky little guy who gives the best hugs and the most beautiful blue eyes, Summer, a little drama queen with all the outfits, Mandy, with his crazy hair and who lives so far away but I love none the less, my Aunt Holley who's crazy as hell but I love her, and my mom...my beautiful mommy, the most wonderful woman I ever met. They are the most important people in my lives who will, no doubt, always be there for me. But then I started to think, I also have extended family. I wont be over all of them for sake of not writing a million words. But each of them,Dee, Aly, Mary, Gregg, Logan, Megan, Jaylee, Chris, Rick, Keith, and many other friends throughout my life have been my family.
This all went through my head within less than a minute. While all of these people are MY family, I'm supposed to be thinking of the IDEAL family. So, I thought about what the word Ideal means. In the dictionary (I just double checked it. :P) It says Ideal means "Satisfying one's conception of what is perfect." Perfect. Let's look at that word. What does perfect mean anyways? Nothing is wrong with whatever happens to be in question. Well, my family, while wonderful, is by no means perfect. Neither is anyone else's. I would not want them to be perfect. It would make life boring. So I was a bit frustrated by this point because I couldn't figure out what to put.
Luckily, the the teacher turned on the overhead projector at this moment and called the first person up. I watched her show her picture and it was of a mom, a dad, a sister, a brother, a cat, and a horse. This is very close to that white picket fence family I had thought of first. This was her family. I thought it was a good family, but was it the "ideal" family? I watched the next person do theirs. Her's was a mom, a dad, a sister, a brother, a cat, a dog, a grandma, and a grandpa. Again, while an awesome family, I couldn't help but wonder was it considered 'ideal'? So, I though about some more. What if the family had two moms or two dads? What if a family only had a wife and husband? What is the grandparents were raising the children? What about single mothers? Were they not good families as well? I noticed that it was just about to be my turn. So I quickly glanced down at my family and came up with up with an idea. This is what I drew: [IMG]http://i1063.photobucket.com/albums/t518/RookRain14205/LJ/IMG_2826_zps20e16b26.jpg[/IMG]

5 giant genderless smiley faces. XD My teacher looked at it in surprise and went oh, you went for the emotional approach. I said, Yes, yes I did. I heard one girl yell out "happy!" and I laughed. I looked at them and said "Yes, I chose happy because the ideal family is a happy one. Family is what you make it." One girl laughed and yelled out "True that!" I actually got applause. XD I was pretty happy by the time I sat back down. I had been nervous before. The teacher explained that this lesson was to show that people think the perfect family is like theirs. When teaching, they gravitate and get along better with people who's family are most similar to their own. She said that her ideal family matched everyone except mine because she hadn't thought of it for this type of lesson. I understand why she didn't. because it was more about diversity (though she didn't explain this beforehand. She wanted us to figure it out on our own.). I was happy and sad from this lesson. While I got everyone went to the white picket fence family, not a single one put an emotion. What people see as the Ideal Family, is not always the best one out there. They can look perfect but be incredibly unhappy. Families come in many shapes and sizes. They all have a story to tell. They have all gone through things only their particular family would understand. While my family does enough problems to fill the empire state building, I believe that we are all happy. I love you all! Mwah!