The importance of our relationships in the family

The blessing of having a family is enormous, and sometimes I believe that we don't really recognize how important families are. Families are the central unit and the place in which we can feel the most safety, love and attachment to other people. Families are made in a way so that the parents can provide and the kids can interact with each other in a safe trusting environment. The family is crucial to our success as well as our ability to adapt in social circumstances. The families that are the most effective is when there is a father and a mother who are committed to each other and committed to their children. There was an American Psycological association study done that tried to claim that children raised from a family where both parents were of the same gender didn't have any negative impact on the children. Later in depth research proved that there wasn't actually any accurate studies done to prove this point and that in fact in a study that was done where it involved children's achievement in school and the children who had both of their parents (father and a mother) had the greatest achievements as well as social skills. This is very interesting because children not only need this stability but they benefit from a stable family life.

Something else interesting is that we are social creatures. Meaning we need human interaction and more than that we need the bonds that come from loving relationships. Children who grow up without the connection and love of parents (such as in orphanages) struggle to have future connections with other people. This is because we need that validation as well as that loving attention. Our lives feel fulfilled when we have intimacy in our lives. We naturally have a desire to have close connections with others as said in "Marriage and Family" by Robert H. Lauer that "the drive to establish connection and intimacy with another person is powerful and universal- all people in all societies are driven to make intimate connections with others". I believe this is because there is so many difficulties in our lives that we need others and we rely on them. This is shown especially with children and how they interact with their parents. When parents give this needed attention to their children, the child naturally is benefited and later in life have "higher levels of self-esteem and with greater emotional strength in adulthood"