Some Thoughts on American Family Culture

It’s been about a month since I’ve had a chance to post. Which is typical of me, so no complaints here. I’ve been busy adventuring in Norway! What an amazing opportunity and experience this has been. I’m still here for 3 more days but I am done travelling this wonderful country for now. I am grateful for the opportunity to travel so much while I am here. It has been a wish of mine to see Norway, as my father’s family is from here. And it has been eye opening to notice the similarities between the Norwegians and the Olsen clan. I won’t go into too much detail as it often takes personal experience with several members of my family to completely understand where I am coming from. However, if you know me, then you know of my natural bluntness about life, and let me tell you, there is no shortage of that here. In a strange roundabout way, it makes me miss home much less.

I have been told by some of my friends in Scotland that Americans put much more of an emphasis on family than Europeans (the Pipers more so than others). At first, this particular quirk struck me as odd. We are a loud, brash, and sometimes obnoxious people. What is it about the US that makes us emphasize our family more? I put the thought out of my mind and didn’t really consider it until my trip to Norway. As I noticed small similarities between my family and our origin, I remembered that off-handed comment, and it struck me. As a country of immigrants, the only people who would understand you, your customs, and idiosyncrasies are the people who came over with you. Generally, this would mean your family. America is sometimes referred to a melting pot of cultures, but I feel it is more like a bunch of different colors blended together. What you get is different than before, but of the visible difference is gone. In a desperation (maybe?) to retain some of that vibrancy, American families possibly look inward. Which is why tradition is considered important, the emphasis being not on cultural tradition but familial tradition.

In the US family units/ communities become countries into themselves, we have our own ways of approaching the world. Americans have a natural tendency to attempt to fracture ourselves, breaking into smaller and smaller dependable units; country, state, country, city, street, family. Each layer shapes our identity as people, mostly from the smallest unit outward. Even after I married, I consider myself, first and foremost, a Piper. It’s who I am, it has shaped my being from a small child to a grown adult. It explains my strengths, and my faults, but it’s me. It’s impossible to separate that part from my married self.

Please do not misunderstand me, families all over the world, no matter what country, shape who you are. It would be arrogant of me to think otherwise. I am just attempting to understand why Americans place so much value on family units compared to what I was told.

Americans are obsessed with genealogies, probably because we want to know, at the most basic level, who we are, and where we come from. We contact distant relatives from far off countries (who generally don’t care to meet us… so maybe we shouldn’t?) in order to bond with the part of us that calls us to understand who we are.

Of course, I could be 100% wrong. I’m no social expert, I’m probably one of the more socially awkward people I know. And my ramblings probably provide more insight into how I think, rather than answer the question of why. But even I want to understand where I’m from, and usually that means looking inward, and that is a hell of a lot more intimidating than analyzing the world around me, that’s for sure.