Vocabulary
| emotional and intellectual stages to pass through to pass through the stages childhood retirement years senior years family life cycle to face challenges to allow to to gain new skills smooth smoothly independence couple coupling parenting adolescent to launch adult children to master the skills difficulty with relationships to prevent disease stress-related bonded by blood to affect to disrupt the normal life cycle to delay to act as a team to make decisions on their own to share to manage duties to care for the parents | ɪˈməʊʃənl ænd ˌɪntɪˈlɛktjʊəl ˈsteɪʤɪz tuː pɑːs θruː tuː pɑːs θruː ðə ˈsteɪʤɪz ˈʧaɪldhʊd rɪˈtaɪəmənt jɪəz ˈsiːnjə jɪəz ˈfæmɪli laɪf ˈsaɪkl tuː feɪs ˈʧælɪnʤɪz tuː əˈlaʊ tuː tuː geɪn njuː skɪlz smuːð ˈsmuːðli ˌɪndɪˈpɛndəns ˈkʌpl ˈkʌplɪŋ ˈpeərəntɪŋ ˌædəʊˈlɛsnt tuː lɔːnʧ ˈædʌlt ˈʧɪldrən tuː ˈmɑːstə ðə skɪlz ˈdɪfɪkəlti wɪð rɪˈleɪʃənʃɪps tuː prɪˈvɛnt dɪˈziːz strɛs-rɪˈleɪtɪd ˈbɒndɪd baɪ blʌd ɔː lʌv tuː əˈfɛkt tuː dɪsˈrʌpt ðə ˈnɔːməl laɪf ˈsaɪkl tuː dɪˈleɪ tuː ækt æz ə tiːm tuː meɪk dɪˈsɪʒənz ɒn ðeər əʊn tuː ʃeə tuː ˈmænɪʤ ˈdjuːtiz tuː keə fɔː ðə ˈpeərənts | () , -. , , , |
2. Read the text
Family
What is a family life cycle? The emotional and intellectual stages you pass through from childhood to your retirement years as a member of a family are called the family life cycle. In each stage, you facechallenges in your family life that allow you to build or gain new skills. Gaining these skills helps you work through the changes that nearly every family goes through.
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Not everyone passes through these stages smoothly. Situations such as severe illness, financial problems, or the death of a loved one can have an effect on how well you pass through the stages. Fortunately, if you miss skills in one stage, you can learn them in later stages.
The stages of the family life cycle are:
Independence.
Coupling( ) or marriage.
Parenting ( , ): babies through adolescents.
Launching ( , , )adult children.
Retirement or senior years.
Why is it important to understand the family life cycle? Mastering the skills and milestones (, , ) of each stage allows you to successfully move from one stage of development to the next. If you don't master the skills, you may still move on to the next phase of the cycle, but you are more likely to have difficulty with relationships and future transitions. Family life cycle theory suggests that successful transitioning may also help to prevent disease and emotional or stress-related disorders.
Whether you are a parent or child, brother or sister, bondedby blood or love, your experiences through the family life cycle will affect who you are and who you become. The more you understand about the challenges of each stage of the cycle, the more likely you are to successfully move on.
What can disrupt the normal cycle? The stress of daily living, coping with a chronic medical condition, or other life crises can disrupt the normal life cycle. Ongoing (, ) stress or a crisis can delay (, ) the transition to the next phase of life. Or you may move on without the skills that you need to easily adapt and transition to the next phase of life.
What skills exactly do we learn at each stage?
| 1) Time as a Couple Get to know each other Learn to think and act as a team Learn to rely on each other Make decisions together about housing & furnishings, education & careers, money, children 2) Parental Years They start when children enter the picture and last until children are financially on their own. There are three parts of Parental years: Expanding years, Developing years, Launching years. 3) Expanding New members are added to the family Focused on home and family life Parents feel tied down (, , ) at times % of activities parents share together drops drastically 4) Developing Children enter school More activities focus outside the home Time is limited Share and manage duties well 5) Launching End of Parental Stage Exit of children from the home | Send children out on their own May be lengthened if children return home 50% of young adults live with parents until age of 20-24 6) The Middle Years Children have left the home Family down sizes to a couple Positive & Negative feelings Empty Nest ()- home without children, grown and gone leaves parents with lost and without purpose feelings. 7) New found freedoms are felt by other families Volunteer Enjoy hobbies Question their relationship with each other Income pressures decrease May care for their parents 8) Retirement Years Final stage of family development Time for travel, hobbies, relaxation Positive feelings are shared when financially stable. Some fear what they will do with themselves. |
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3. Get acquainted with the vocabulary pertaining to the topic Family Members
Immediate Family
| Masculine | Feminine |
| father | mother |
| son | daughter |
| brother | sister |
| husband | wife |
When you have children, you are a parent.
If you are a male parent, you are a father.
If you are female parent, you are a mother.
If one of your children is a boy, he is your son.
If one of your children is a girl, she is your daughter.
When a couple gets married, the man is the husband, and the woman is his wife.
A brother and sister both have the same parents.
One collective word to describe brothers and sisters is siblings. However this word is normally only used in written English, not orally.
Different Generations
| Masculine | Feminine |
| Forefathers | |
| Great-great grandfather | Great-great grandmother |
| Great grandfather | Great grandmother |
| Grandfather | Grandmother |
| Father | Mother |
| Son | Daughter |
| Grandson | Granddaughter |
| Great grandson | Great granddaughter |
| Great-great grandson | Great-great granddaughter |
| Descendents | |
