Family Traditions

2. Family traditions

1. Let’s talk about family traditions. Why is family important for you?

Family is very important for every person, because it gives you a sense of stability and tradition, a feeling of having support and understanding. You feel secure when there’s a family behind you. They are people you can trust and rely on, people who won’t let you down and who share your joys and sorrows. In happy families parents are frank and honest with their children, they treat their children with respect without moralizing or bossing them, and children in their turn learn how to treat other people and how to form relationship with their peers.

I enjoy the honest and open relationship in my family. I like it when parents trust their children, give them enough freedom and respect them. I think these things make family relations warm and pleasant. There is no so-called “generation gap” in our family, though we may argue and disagree on certain issues. I can always bring my friend home and my parents are very positive about it, although they don’t always approve of our tastes, views and clothes.

In fact I have a closer relationship with my mother. We understand each other better, which I think is quite natural. We can spend hours and hours talking about our family problems, fashion, views on education, people’s relations, their ambitions and the like.

I guess, when people spend more time together they are closer to each other. It’s a pity, but my parents and I are usually very busy during the weekdays and we seldom have a chance to spend time together. Sunday is the day when we can sit at a table and talk over everything that happened during the week. Eating together makes us feel close and we often have our most frank conversations at these times. Also once a week my parents give the flat a big clean. Of course I help them with it. By the way it’s not so boring. I turn on music and we even have fun. Then we may go shopping together. I like to go shopping with my parents because they always buy me something. During our shopping rounds we discuss a lot of things and make plans for the next weekend.

Almost every weekend we visit our grandparents; sometimes we visit my uncle (aunt) and his family.

I’d like to become more independent from my parents in future, nevertheless we’ll always be the best friends because my parents are the most important people in the world.

Family is very important for me, because it gives me a sense of stability and tradition, a feeling of having support and understanding. I feel secure when there’s a family behind me. They are people I can trust and rely on, people who won’t let me down and who share my joys and sorrows. My parents are frank and honest with me, they treat me with respect without moralizing or bossing, and I in my turn learn how to treat other people and how to form relationship with my peers.

2. Are there any family traditions that you follow?

We have some family traditions. But to my mind we haven’t got anything special or original in our family. All our family traditions are connected with some holidays. Apart from national holidays there are family holidays like birthdays, weddings and anniversaries. A birthday is always a happy event in our family. On these days we usually have a party. Friends and relatives come with flowers and gifts and a festive dinner is served with plenty of delicious food to eat. Afterwards the guests either dance or sing, listen to music or just chat. One more family tradition is spending summer holidays together either at the seaside or in the country, which I enjoy very much. I’d like to become more independent from my parents in future, nevertheless we’ll always be the best friends because my parents are the most important people in the world.

3. What will you ask a British teenager about his/her relatives?

-Have you got many relatives?

-How many cousins have you got?

-Have you got close relations with them?

4. What can you advise people who want to have a good relationship with their parents and grandparents?

I think we are old enough to realize that adults are not saints and may make mistakes and that the so-called generation gap should not spoil our relations. Good children are prepared to compromise and meet their parents halfway, render any possible help to their parents, treat their parents in the way they would like to be treated themselves.

So first of all I can advise for anyone to try to understand the feelings of your parents and show respect to them. Even if you don’t agree with their thinking, try to make them understand politely, don’t use harsh words with them which may hurt. It’s important to celebrate your parents’ and grandparents’ birthdays. It will make them realize that you care for them.

5. They say that parents and children have difficulties understanding each other because of the generation gap. What do you think about this problem?

I often hear this term “generation gap”, but I hope it’s not about my family. To my mind misunderstanding may happen if people don’t respect each other. Of course different generations have different ideas and values, nevertheless children and parents love each other. So any problem can be discussed. It’s much easier to find the way out together.