We have many different kinds of relationships in our lives, some more important and more in depth than others but no two relationships are the same. The first kinds of relationships that come to my mind are family relationships, but then when I think about the relationships I have with my family, I can't say that any two relationships are the same. I have two sisters and when you look at the relationships I have with each one of them, they are completely different. And then my relationship with my brother is even more different than the ones I have with my sisters.
The next relationship that comes to mind is my relationship with my parents. I don't think any child has the same kind of relationship with their mom and their dad, I know I don't. I grew up living with my mom and had a closer relationship with her then I did with my dad because I didn't live with him but I didn't have a horrible relationship with my dad. It was just different and not as close a one as with my mom.
The main thing I'm trying to point out here is that we put labels on our relationships and different people can label their relationship with those same labels and have a completely different experience. For instance, the definition of a mother is "a woman in relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth" but then when you look at a woman who has adopted a child she isn't considered any less a mother because she wasn't the one to give birth to the child. I believe that labels can have completely different meanings to others.
Two labels that have always interested me are boyfriend and girlfriend, i know the definition of the words have to deal with someone you have a regular romantic or sexual relationship with but I think the two terms have turned into completely different things over the years. I hear twelve and thirteen year olds call someone else their boyfriend or girlfriend, and the only thing I can think of when I hear this is "Do you know what those words mean?" or "Aren't you a little young to have a boyfriend or girlfriend?"
When I think of the term boyfriend, I think of someone that has the potential to be a future husband, not someone that I'm going to hang around with or hook up with. That is not a boyfriend or a girlfriend for that matter. You can look at it both ways, a girlfriend is someone that has the potential to be a future wife. I think it's simple in my mind but people are using these words so loosely now that they are starting to have different meanings.
It's not only with the terms boyfriend or girlfriend either, other labels are being interrupted in different ways, like the word friend. People use the term friend so casually now that it starts to get confusing on what an actual friend is in today's society.
Labels are used everyday on everyone, but what we have to know is that one label does not always mean the same thing when being used to describe two different people.
