Family Life Cycle

A concept that I thought was interesting in this chapter was the family life cycle. I liked how the chapter was able to break it down into just seven different stages which were establishing a family, enlarging a family, developing a family, encouraging independence, launching children, postlaunching of children and retirement. I liked being able to look at these stages and think about which stage the people in my life are at. I know people who have just stepped into stage two, others who are in stage three and I’m sure my parents would be in stage five of their family life cycle. I’ve always imagined that settling down and having a family would be a difficult decision for me but this chapter made it seem like a challenging but altogether beautiful process. Although I do not plan on starting a family anytime soon, this chapter has at least opened my mind to the possibility of it.