English
EspañolThe family is the household where we learn to live with each other. We are taught that a single person is not the axis on which the world spins around. The family is where we learn that the world – the other people – is more significant than the walls of our home.
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“The family is the primary setting for socialization, since it is where we first learn to relate to others, to listen and share, to be patient and show respect, to help one another and live as one. The task of education is to make us sense that the world and society are also our home; it trains us how to live together in this greater home.” (The Joy of Love, n.276)
Commentary
It is part of the perennial wisdom to affirm that the family, based on parents’ love and conjugal union, is the most profound and strongest foundation of humanized society. It is decisive not to mention it as a cliché but to understand its truth in daily experience. Let me provide an example, among many possible ones.
All the classmates want to invite Julian to their homes to play. The best part is that his friends´ parents also want him to come to play. What is so remarkable about Julian? He is ten years old, the oldest of four siblings; nothing special about him. What happens is that at his friend´s house, he behaves just like he does at home. What happens at Julian´s house? He sees his father return home after work with a smile on his face, ready to play with his children and help his wife feed them, bathe them, and put them to bed. Julian sees his mother preparing dinner and then, once seated at the table, asking each one how their day was. Julian and two of his siblings share the responsibility of setting the table, tidying up toys, and taking the dishes to the dishwasher. He constantly hears the words: “please, thank you, may I, excuse me, can I help you.”
Julian behaves the same when at his friends´ house: he offers to help set the table and clear it, adds a “please” whenever he asks for something and remembers to say “thank you” afterward; he tides up the toys used to play before going home. For him, what occurs at home is “normal”; that is how things are.
Family life is an early rehearsal for life in society. The way we see our parents act, how they treat each other, how we treat our siblings, the family customs, and how we collaborate with our family are attitudes, and ways of being we will replicate in society.
