FAMILY AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Papers are due on Thursday of week 14.

They should be 4-6 pages, typed, double-spaced, and deal with your family of origin (the family in which you grew up, whether that was a traditional two-parent family, a single-parent family, a blended family, a foster family--whatever the setting in which you spent the majority of your childhood years). Feel free to include photos, poetry, artwork, whatever helps convey your family realities. Also feel free to interview your parents about some of these areas if you have the opportunity (if you didn't already interview them in the parenting interviews). You can organize your paper in terms of some of the categories I've listed here, or put together a more integrated essay.

You may pick and choose the topics and questions which seem most relevant to your family, and you may deal with them in any order.

1. Division of labor. Who contributed what to your family (in terms of everything from economics, housework, and childcare to maintaining family and friendship ties, emotional tone, and spiritual life)? What do you see as the good and bad effects of the way your family divided up its tasks?

2. Power. (A pretty standard sociological definition of power, coming from Max Weber, is the ability to get one's way even if others resist; but there are probably more subtle and manipulative kinds of power that should also be included here.) Who had what kinds of power? Did your father dominate your mother or vice versa or were they pretty equal in terms of power? What were their areas of power? Did kids dominate parents or vice versa? Did one of the kids have more power than others? How were key decisions made? Did power relationships reflect cultural expectations about roles, or moreso reflect the individual personalities of those in the family? If you grew up in a single-parent family, do you think that had any consequences for the distribution of power?

3. Generations. How do you think your family dynamics were affected by your parent(s)' experiences in their own families of orientation? Were there certain things your grandparents had done that your parents were trying to emulate or to avoid? Are there aspects of your own family experience that you will want to emulate or avoid in the families you create?

4. Social class/race/ethnicity. How was your family affected by inequalities of class/race/ethnicity? Did these things have an effect on where your family lived, where you went to school, what opportunities were open or closed to you? Was race/ethnicity an issue in your family? How did your parents deal with it?

5. Parenting issues. How old were your parents when their children were born? Were they married, and if so, for how long? How ready do you think they were to become parents? How would you characterize their parenting style? Were they more like Lareau's "concerted cultivation" pattern or more like the "natural growth" pattern, and how did that affect you? Did they have specific ideals and values that they tried very hard to inculcate in you? What about religion--were you required to participate? Were there major differences and/or conflicts between your parents about parenting issues?

6. Discuss patterns of communication in your family. How did/do people express their feelings? Did you tend to all get together for certain meals, and if so, what was the pattern of conversation at those meals? How did the children in the family learn about sexuality?

7. How many siblings do you have, and where do you fit in terms of birth order and gender? Do you think your sibling(s), if any, would describe your family the same way you do? Do you think you and your siblings played distinctive roles in your family?

8. Major crises. Was your family affected by , unemployment, alcoholism, death, family violence, etc. and in what ways?

9. What about divorce? If your parents divorced, how old were you when it happened? Was it hard on you in some of the ways that Wallerstein described? Was there anything your parents were able to do to minimize the effects on you?

10. Step families. Did you spend part of your growing up years in a step-family, whether because of divorce or death? How would you describe the dynamics between step-parent and step-child(ren)? Between step-siblings?

11. Are there aspects of your family experience with which it has taken you a long time to come to terms or with which you are still struggling? What do you think it would take to achieve a resolution of those issues?

12. What are your present relations with your family of origin? What seems to be the impact of having you in college?

13. Is there anything not included in these topics and questions that is important for an understanding of your family experience?.