My Family Culture

On my journey to another country I am leaving everything I own behind except for the these three small items that mean the most to me and represents my family culture.  I would bring the three baby books of my children because that represents my life.  My husband and I have put everything about ourselves into these three children and having their "baby" books with me forever would make me feel connected.  I use the word "baby" book loosely because it is more like a life book.  I just started it when they were born, but to this day I still add a few words of endearment and mementos of their life.  These books represent our family culture.  Since I am only able to take three things I would just bring the baby books because I have three children. 

My feelings if, upon arrival, I were told that I could only keep one would be devastating because as a mother how do you choose between children.  I would likely choose to stay behind because I would never choose among them because they are my joy, my life and my family culture.  I guess if I were alerted that there was a possibility that I could only take one item then it would be a family picture so that I would have them close to me always.  If I was not alerted prior to arrival I know within the baby books are picture of us as a family doing things we love together so I would simply pull out one of those pictures that show us living our lives together as a family.

When I really had to stop and think about what represents our family culture it is closeness and their baby books represent that closeness.  They like to tease me that I still put stuff in their baby book, but they often will pull them out and we reminisce about their life.  The baby book has become a part of the story of their life through the eyes of their parents.  Our perspective of the highlights that have made them the young adults they are today.  What I learned about myself is that when you have to pair down to just 3 items many things that initially seem really important are just things that really mean nothing in the bigger picture of life.  My family is what means the most to me and my family culture is we still together through good and bad times. Nothing is more important within a culture than how its children are raised (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).