Each family is different and each family member plays their role differently. Seeing how your parents work together, and how they work separately, really does influence what kind of person you turn out to be. In some households, one parent works while the other stays home. In others, there is only one parent there to do the work of two. Every house has a different situation and a different way of life.
My mom has always been just as ambitious and hard-working as my dad. They both challenged each other every day to do their best, and that showed me that as an adult, you had to work hard. Neither one had more chores around the house, neither one did more than the other for most of my lifetime. Growing up in a house without gender roles really did help me as a person because it showed me that my gender has nothing to do with what I wanted to be when I grew up or how much housework I would have to do when I had my own home.
In my family, there is me, a nineteen year old sophomore in college, who is the bossy oldest sister who has frequently been the babysitter. Next is my brother, Max, who is a seventeen year old senior in high school, who is part of the marching band, and can be very frustrating at times. He is a traveler and loves to create things. After Max, there is fifteen year old sophomore in high school, Bailey. He loves video games and learning about electronics. Finally, the youngest in my family is my little sister, Madison, who is a twelve year old seventh grader. She is very funny, and sometimes very girly, while other times she can be very tomboyish. She loves music just as much as the rest of our family, and plays two instruments.
No matter how different each of us are, my siblings and I were always given the same amount of chores around the house, and the same expectations, to do our best in school and help around the house. We are all expected to get good grades, and depending on whether it is what we wanted in life, to go to college. We all are expected to take care of ourselves and to treat people with respect. None of the expectations they have for me or my siblings have been based upon whether we were born male or female.
I really feel that all children should grow up knowing that their gender is not what creates their path in life. A lot of children think that because they are a boy or a girl they have to do something specific to their gender in life and that is really not true. I think that watching my parents treat each other as equals made me see that I am equal to everyone else, regardless of gender. Growing up in a small town doesn't always have that effect on children. Girls sometimes grow up thinking that they have to depend on a man to take care of things for them while they stay at home and have babies. That really is so far from the truth and I hope that some day everyone sees that.
