What is my role?

     Families are made of many unique individuals. Because each person is different, it can be difficult to find your place in the group. I know for me I had an exceedingly difficult time finding how I fit into my family. I am sure a lot of people feel the same way. We all are trying to find themselves and their places in life. One of the challenges of being in a family is finding your place and role.

    Every family member has a role in their family, and it is not quite as simple as you would think. We know of the common family roles: the protector, the funny one, the oldest child, the youngest, etc. I did not think about this in much detail until one day in class this week as we went over roles in the family.

    Some of the roles we talked about were the family disrupter, the family mascot, the family mediator, the family comforter, peace maker, and the provoker. The family disrupter is the one that is always challenging others. The family mascot is basically the class clown of the family. They are always making the others laugh. The family mediator is the one that is always solving problems and resolving conflict. The family comforter is the one that offers comfort and listening to the others’ problems. The peace maker is pretty self-explanatory.  

    As we discussed these different roles in class, it got me thinking about more about my own family and the roles my siblings and I have in our family. I want to share my family’s roles. However, I am going to be using fake names when I talk about my family in order to protect their privacy.

    To be honest, I could not think of all of my siblings’ roles, or my own, so I talked with my parents to determine the roles of my family members. My oldest sister, Amy, now has a family of her own so her role is quite different than it used to be. However, my parents said she had a “Google” role in the family. She has always been very knowledgeable, especially when it came to random topics. My older brother, Lucas, is definitely the Family Disrupter. He always challenges in many aspects of our lives. He enjoys asking “why?” and getting us to think. Marie is what I’d call the Partier. She loves to have fun and be lively. Whenever she comes over, she always wants to play games and do fun things together with everyone.

    For my role, it took a little thinking. I like to spend a lot of time alone, and I don’t always partake in family activities. However, I am also the one to take my siblings out to do fun things and spoil them a little bit. The title for my role that my parents and I came up with is the Independent Comforter. My sister, Samantha, especially likes to go on adventures with me. She is an Explorer. She likes to know things and learn how and why things work. Even with family members, she likes to know why we do the things we do sometimes. Finley is the Peace Maker. She has always been the soft spoken one that sets an example for the others. My brother, Alex, is the Lovable One. Everyone who meets him can’t help but love him. He loves to give hugs and just enjoys life. Julia is a Provoker, constantly riling people up. She still loves to have fun, but she also enjoys pushing people’s buttons. Sadie is the Family Mascot. I cannot tell you how many videos I have of Sadie being a goofball and making everyone laugh. She loves life and loves being her crazy self.

    As you can see, even in a family as big as mine, everyone has a role they play. Everyone contributes to the family unit. Even if you feel like the odd one out, there is something special that only you contribute to your family.