Stresses in the Family

 If anyone were to tell you that they had a perfect family that never fights or has never gone through hardships; they are lying to you. Every family has gone through something that causes some sort of stress in their lives, and it is different for everyone even if they have gone through some sort of the same thing such as divorce, foreclosure, death, etc. This can have a large impact on families that can affect each individual family member in multiple different ways. My father is probably one of my best friends and inspires me so much. He is proof that good can come out of bad situations. He grew up in an extremely dysfunctional household, everything imaginable sadly happened in that house. My grandfather was an abusive alcoholic that would cause unbearable stress upon my grandmother, my father, and my aunts. Everyone in the small town of Great Bend, Kansas knew what type of person he was but he was so powerful because of all the land that he owned. My father would go to school with bruises yet no justice was done. Though my grandfather was a wealthy man, he never got held accountable for his actions. Not only was my grandmother struggling with the physical abuse, but the emotional abuse drove her to kick out my father when he was only 15 years old. Till this day he holds nothing against her because he knew that she was not in the right mindset at this time. My fathers best friend at the time family would bring him in but he chose to rent his own apartment because my grandmother would harrass them for "stealing her son away from her". When he would work, all of his checks would go to my grandma, even when he was living alone. I truly do not know how he did it, especially being a high school student on the brink of not graduating. My father knew the only way that he could help his family with this situation in his family, he would have to leave and serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Him and his family were extremely blessed. He was able to focus on himself and the Lord and his mother and sisters were protected from my grandfathers harm. It affects each individual differently and my father chose to leave to focus on himself while still helping his sisters. He was able to influence two of his sisters to move to Minnesota. Stressors can come in all different forms in families. With my own family it was during the economic crisis of 2008, we were in fear of a foreclosure but with the help of the Lord and hard work, we were able to avoid that. It is important to realize how we may deal with these difficult situations. It wasn't until a couple years later, I did not realize that we were broke and were about to loose our house. Im very grateful for my parents not letting me know because I was only eight years old. I do have regret for begging my parents to take us out more often instead of doing yard work or staying home and watching a movie. I knew how hard my parents worked but I did not realize why they had to work so much. I was confused and hated that we weren't able to do things that other kids my age were doing with their families. I am so grateful that we were able to be protected during those hard times and were still able to help others.