Families We Keep

Download or read book Families We Keep written by Rin Reczek and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why LGBTQ adults don’t end troubled ties with parents and why (perhaps) they should Families We Keep is a surprising look at the life-long bonds between LGBTQ adults and their parents. Alongside the importance of “chosen families” in the queer community, Rin Reczek and Emma Bosley-Smith found that very few LGBTQ people choose to become estranged from their parents, even if those parent refuse to support their gender identity, sexuality, or both. Drawing on interviews with over seventy-five LGBTQ people and their parents, Reczek and Bosley-Smith explore the powerful ties that bind families together, for better or worse. They show us why many feel obliged to maintain even troubled—and sometimes outright toxic—relationships with their parents. They argue that this relationship persists because what we think of as the “natural” and inevitable connection between parents and adult children is actually created and sustained by the sociocultural power of compulsory kinship. After revealing what holds even the most troubled intergenerational ties together, Families We Keep gives us permission to break free of those family bonds that are not in our best interests. Reczek and Bosley-Smith challenge our deep-rooted conviction that family—and specifically, our relationships with our parents—should be maintained at any cost. Families We Keep shines a light on the shifting importance of family in America, and how LGBTQ people navigate its complexities as adults.

Download or read book Families We Keep written by Rin Reczek and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There is no "'till death do us part" vow between parents and children. And yet, parent-child relationships are far more enduring than the marital relationships that made this phrase famous. The life-long parent-child tie is so ubiquitous and taken-for-granted that it doesn't need an oath. This unspoken pledge is our birthright; in times of good and bad, sickness and health, parents and their children are bound for life. But, not every parent-child tie is healthy and helpful. And what's remarkable is this imperative persists even when these relationships are unsatisfactory or even deeply damaging. Why do we stay in these parent-adult child relationships? And how do we stay bonded amidst rejection and pain? This book answers these questions. Drawing on interviews with 76 LGBTQ adults and 44 of their parents, the authors explain that conflictual, rejecting, and even abusive ties with parents endure because of what they call compulsory kinship: the overarching socio-cultural forces that tell us we have to stay in this bond, no matter what. That is, what we think of as the "natural" and inevitable connection between parents and adult children is actually created and sustained by sociocultural forces of compulsory kinship. With their empirical data the authors show why LGBTQ people justify their adherence to the specific compulsory kinship, using the rationales of love and closeness, parental growth, and the uniqueness of the parent-child tie. Further, they reveal how LGBTQ people stay in difficult relationships with parents through a new type of family work called "conflict work.""--

Download or read book Habits of the Household written by Justin Whitmel Earley and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2021-11-09 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover simple habits and easy-to-implement daily rhythms that will help you find meaning beyond the chaos of family life as you create a home where kids and parents alike practice how to love God and each other. You long for tender moments with your children--but do you ever find yourself too busy to stop, make eye contact, and say something you really mean? Daily habits are powerful ways to shape the heart--but do you find yourself giving in to screen time just to get through the day? You want to parent with purpose--but do you know how to start? Award-winning author and father of four Justin Whitmel Earley understands the tension between how you long to parent and what your daily life actually looks like. In Habits of the Household, Earley gives you the tools you need to create structure--from mealtimes to bedtimes--that free you to parent toddlers, kids, and teens with purpose. Learn how to: Develop a bedtime liturgy to settle your little ones and ground them in God's love Discover a new framework for discipline as discipleship Acquire simple practices for more regular and meaningful family mealtimes Open your eyes to the spirituality of parenting, seeing small moments as big opportunities for spiritual formation Develop a custom age chart for your family to more intentionally plan your shared years under the same roof Each chapter in Habits of the Household ends with practical patterns, prayers, or liturgies that your family can put into practice right away. As you create liberating rhythms around your everyday routines, you will find your family has a greater sense of peace and purpose as your home becomes a place where, above all, you learn how to love.

Download or read book Families We Choose written by Kath Weston and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kath Weston draws upon fieldwork and interviews conducted in the San Francisco Bay area to explore the ways in which gay men and lesbians are constructing their own notions of kinship by drawing on the symbolism of love, friendship and biology. Conventional views of family have depicted gays and lesbians as exiles from the realm of kinship. In recent decades, however, gay men and lesbians have increasingly portrayed themselves as people who seek not only to maintain ties with blood or adoptive relatives but also to establish families of their own.

Download or read book The Kids written by Gabriela Herman and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PAPERBACK ORIGINAL A stunning new photobook featuring more than fifty portraits of children brought up by gay parents in America, sixth in a groundbreaking series that looks at LGBTQ communities around the world Judges, academics, and activists keep wondering how children are impacted by having gay parents. Maybe it’s time to ask the kids. For the past four years, award-winning photographer Gabriela Herman, whose mother came out when Herman was in high school and was married in one of Massachusetts’ first legal same-sex unions, has been photographing and interviewing children and young adults with one or more parent who identify as lesbian, gay, trans, or queer. Building on images featured in a major article for the New York Times Sunday Review and The Guardian and working with the Colage organization, the only national organization focusing on children with LGBTQ parents, The Kids brings a vibrant energy and sensitivity to a wide range of experiences. Some of the children Herman photographed were adopted, some conceived by artificial insemination. Many are children of divorce. Some were raised in urban areas, other in the rural Midwest and all over the map. These parents and children juggled silence and solitude with a need to defend their families on the playground, at church, and at holiday gatherings. This is their story. The Kids was designed by Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios (EWS).

Download or read book All Families Are Special written by Norma Simon and published by Albert Whitman & Company. This book was released on 2023-01-26 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of a Parent's Guide Children's Media Award No two families are the same, but every family is special. When Mrs. Mack says she will soon be a grandmother, her students realize that teachers have families just like they do! Suddenly everyone in the class wants to share information about his or her own unique family. Sarah tells of flying to China with her parents where they adopted her sister, Rachel. Christopher tells about his parents' divorce. They are still a family, but now he and his brother spend a few days every week at their dad's apartment. Nick lives with his parents, five siblings, and his grandparents―they need to order three large pizzas for dinner! And Hannah tells how she loves to garden with her two mommies.

Download or read book Behind Closed Doors: SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING written by Polly Curtis and published by Virago. This book was released on 2022-02-03 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'BRILLIANT . . . I LOVE THIS BOOK' LEMN SISSAY 'A MUST-READ BOOK' JACQUELINE WILSON 'EXTRAORDINARY' OLIVER BULLOUGH 'EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK' HILARY COTTAM Meet the mother whose children were taken away, and the father who fought for his son. Listen to the radical social worker, the judge, the lawyer. See inside the homes of foster carers, adoptive parents and children in care. Because behind closed doors, a scandal is ongoing. We now remove more children from their parents than ever before, more than any other western country. Not because of a rise in physical or sexual abuse, but because of complex factors that are overlooked and misunderstood. Children's Care is a system where fathers are ignored, and mothers are punished for experiencing abuse. Rife with prejudices about race, ableism and class, determined by a postcode lottery. Blind to poverty and its effects on family life. And, at its very worst, an exercise in social engineering that can never replace parental love. This is not a soft issue. Not a 'women and children' problem. It is a prism through which we can understand the deepest issues at play in politics, economics and society today, and it is happening behind closed doors. Because of legal restrictions against reporting in family courts, the uneasy work of social care and the shame poured on parents, these problems remain out of our sight. They are the subject of horror headlines or stale statistics. But family life is at the heart of who we are as people, and it is they who can help us understand. From North to South, rich and poor, Black and white, these are the people who know, first-hand, what is going wrong - and how we can fix it. These are their stories. 'IMPORTANT' IAN BIRRELL 'VITAL' HANNAH JANE PARKINSON 'ONE OF BRITAIN'S BEST JOURNALISTS WRITING ABOUT SOCIAL JUSTICE' MARIANA MAZZUCATO