Family First

What exactly is family? 

Even for a young child, defining a family in terms of what we feel a family should be is simple. However, not every simple image or perception we have of someone is right; what we say about “family” may also be influenced by the experiences or contacts we’ve acquired while dealing with identity issues. 

Family can refer to either a social unit or an emotional condition. We define family members as those who are linked to one another by marriage, adoption and blood, but it can be a mystical union with an atmosphere of love, assurance, and harmony.

Relationships emerge when two or more individuals join their efforts to strive toward or achieve a single goal, which entails affection, coherence, and loyalty. A family is formed through a connection, a mutual relationship between two individuals or parties; it must be binding with goals and aspirations, and each person must understand the other party. 

When people learn that their biological parents abandoned them, I believe they demean themselves. It’s reasonable to wonder, what happened? What prompted him to leave? Was I a nuisance? 

These questions will depress you and prevent you from seeing what lies ahead of you, your own family, your parents and siblings, and you may become even more estranged from your own family. 

In old age, modern times, and postmodern times, we get responsibilities for the family. We work for our family, relocate to find family, sacrifice for family, adjust to change for our family, seek renown to find family, and even conduct crime or kill for our family. 

I believe that relying on our view of family will never help us to overcome racial prejudice, tribalism, or nepotism. Consider yourself a family member that shares economic and resource resources, cares or is concerned about your well-being. 

What’s more, it identifies or recognizes you as family, teaches or educates you, and counsels you to growth and development. 

Many people’s perceptions have been influenced to some extent by the ideology of family as people related by blood or marriage; today, no woman wants to take care of a stepchild, and some may even kill the child; we can never escape domestic violence if we do not try to understand the concept of family; and in most cases, adoption as a form of family occurs not willingly but as the “last option” for us to have a child, why no one?

Discrimination begins with the belief that family is nothing more than a biological bond. 

For most of us, family comes first, but why and when is that family important to you? For some, family comes after a couple of drinks, or it comes first because of a death in the family, an important family keeps you on your toes to look for it, like you are dependable, and that is meaningful to live for, knowing that I have to do my best for my child (not necessarily by blood).

Family traits currently have conditions this goes beyond love. True love is unconditional, which means people choose to have a family not out of love but through forming a relationship that has rules, for example, “I need someone who has money or I need a lady who can cook well,”  

How many males are poor? Do you eat? It’s interesting that when we walk down the street, we don’t understand the concept of a family just by looking at the street kids because I assume you can’t live without food, which means you can share and that’s enough to have a sense of belonging.  

Wherever we are, we need to act decently because anyone can be family, not by your plans or intentions but by how you treat others right or appropriately. 

We can never be the same; we need each other to grasp something new, just like our fingers.

Even when we know the truth, people always defend their families in crisis communication. However, even the affected person can only be considered family if we avoid blood ties codes and stand up for the truth. 

The family is the first line of defence against violence in our societies; our manners, actions, and conversations with our children are the cofactors or determinants of the future society. 

There are best-case scenarios for peace and conflict resolution in society; for example, my family comes first in my provisions, which obliges me to focus on my work without diluting other people’s priorities or activities, and my priority is to feed and support my family.

On the other hand, speaking or gossiping about a violent neighbour grows the trend among that family generation. 

In accordance with Kenya’s 2010 constitution’s Chapter 4 (the Bills of Rights), our definition of family keeps us vigilant or cautious about how we treat one another at work, at school, on the streets or roads, and in all other public places. 

By providing insight into structural families and society as a whole, we should ensure that our families receive the priority they deserve in society. The elderly who are standing on the bus should not be denied a seat just because they are a stranger; rather, we should set the right examples for societal moral development, keeping in mind that anyone can be a family member.