Post 5: Substitute Family

Children who are not that close with their family make substitute families, maybe their friends, school, work, sports, music.  Children would tend to create their own family.

I personally did create my own family, thinking that these things will fill my emptiness. I joined different school activities in dancing, singing, joining speech choir, competing in different art contests because, I want to feel loved because I thought that people would looked up at me.

But this is different from what I’ve mentioned earlier, a book of Michael K. Carlie caught my attention “A Personal Journey into theWorld of Street Gangs” he said, “Gangs form due to the absence of a family and its unconditional love, positive adult role models, and proper discipline.”

I also had a friend who was a part of a gang, and she told me it was her second family because she believes that they were the only one who understands her. Most members of gangs experience brokenness that is why they try to find people who would accept them.

According to his book a writer named Jankowski wrote, “I found that there were as many gang members from homes where the nuclear family was intact as there were from families where the father was absent.“

Proper handling and parenting must be done from the very start, once the children felt isolated, alone, left, cast-away it would contribute a big change in an individual’s life. He would create a negative outlook in life, low self-esteem and the tendency is he/she will rebel and a lot of people may be involved or damaged.