Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
Lost but Found
A child is supposed to be loved. I also wondered why I wasn’t love by mother. She took care of me, but she didn’t love me. I wanted to be loved like my siblings. I can see the connection with my siblings verses me. I got old enough to see what was going on. Everytime I got in trouble some way some how I was compared to my father. Was I not loved because I reminded her of my father so much. I soon became angry.
By Mariah Murray6 years ago in Families
Life is too short...
It’s strange when you sit and accept that life is just a bunch of days strung together. Created and maintained by memories, and little things that turn into the big moments, that you have the power to create. That is the thing about life, it’s a gift, and is so fragile, precious and unpredictable.
By Victoria Keeley6 years ago in Families
I’ll Always Hate Zucchini
I’ll Always Hate Zucchini “Drop the zucchini and run,” said my mother, before we lost her on that first night of our holidays in Mexico, “it’s the only thing I can do.” I was ten at the time and had poked my head around the corner, thinking everyone else was asleep as the cursed vegetable rolled on the ground.
By Frank Talaber6 years ago in Families
The Day My Brother Died
Your sweet eyes knew the darkness in a soul. You suffered for your sanity. I am reminded of the lyrics from “Vincent” by Don McLean, “they would not listen, they did not know how, perhaps they will listen now”. I still see your face the last day you were on this earth. You looked like an old man who had seen the worst in humanity, sallow, not at peace. Your eyes opened one last time, in a moment of shock before closing forever. I remember the sounds, the smell of the room, the colors of the lights. I remember the feeling in my heart that was so painful. I swore to you that day I would never let you be forgotten. Your life mattered. My sweet brother. I wish I had known you better. I suppose I am one of those that did not know how to listen.
By Kelley Kidd6 years ago in Families
The In-Between
The first thing I knew was warmth. Sunlight. I opened my eyes and had to immediately shade them from the blinding light. The next thing I knew was soft beneath my hand and arms. Grass. Softer and greener than any grass I’d ever known before. Where was I? A field?
By Riley Julian Minnich6 years ago in Families
A Story of Chairs
Think of the chairs in your life. Did your mom or dad have a favorite chair? Did your Grandparents? I think of my first chair, a diminutive red velvet rocking chair that I named “Redda.” My dad picked it up from a roadside stand during one of his trucking trips and gave it to me shortly after my birth. It went through me as well as four younger siblings and by the end of our childhood most of the dark red velvet was rubbed of the seat and arms. The back came loose twice while my dad was alive. The last time he fixed it, he told me that if it happened again, it was going to the dump. It was a thought that nearly broke my heart. I loved that little chair and had spent many hours in it, playing with toys at the old olive green coffee table, reading Dick and Jane books or listening to records on the old record player. I was very careful with it after that warning and frequently cautioned my younger siblings to treat with care as well.
By Amber M Martell6 years ago in Families
Fracture
You’ve been here before, your friend holding an innocent captive behind the rusted barrel of a silver Glock. It’s his father’s. Faint rings of white powder crust around his nostrils like crystalized sugar, and his shoulders sag. It takes all his energy to lift his right arm, the pistol grabbing gravity like a bell weight. But he stands firm, the clerk mesmerized by those glazed eyes.
By Christian Wright6 years ago in Families
10 Best Fantasy Books for Children
The first books I can remember were those written by the popular British children’s author, Enid Blyton. Her books were ubiquitous in my world, and she was the J.K. Rowling of her time. I started out with her “Noddy” series, a wooden toy elf, and his friend Big Ears, the dwarf. Now, I can see Enid Blyton as a product of her time and generation: the “stiff upper lip” white British middle class, but she was what we had during the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. Her books invoked a sense of familiarity and coziness, and the young adult characters had unparalleled freedom to do what they wanted and to go wherever they wanted. That was intoxicating to the freedom-loving child I was!
By Katlynn Brooke6 years ago in Families
Disbanding the Normative Nuclear Family
The concept of “The Family” unanimously pervades cultures and communities, albeit without remaining universal in its meaning, despite stereotyped understandings of what a ‘family’ is. This essay will consider whether the concept of the family is exactified or dissembled through anthropological study in exploring differing understandings and examples of “The Family”, and how these representations help us understand if a concrete notion of family can be established and, if, so, how that notion may be defined. In order to conduct this consideration, the more stereotypical understanding of the nuclear family will be observed through considering a Malinowskian viewpoint, which will then be questioned in relation to more ethnographically-sourced observations of “The Family”. The overarching message of this essay will be to evoke the sentiment that “families- like religions, economies, governments, or courts of law- are not unchanging but the product of various social forms, that the relationship of spouses and parents to their young are apt to be different things in different social orders.” (Collier et al, 76) From this understanding, this essay will hopefully succeed in articulating how the anthropological study of “The Family” gives meaning to the term, and how that meaning effectively develops a conceptualization of familial structures.
By Channing Cook6 years ago in Families
