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Cultural Differences

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Cultural Differences

When deciding on which families I would look at when completing this paper I decided to look at my wife's family and my own. My wife's culture background is of Italian heritage, while my family is composed of Irish heritage. My wife's family consists of her father, step-mother an one sibling who is younger than my wife. Her parents divorced when she was 12 years old. She is full blooded italian. My family consists of my two sisters and my niece. My sisters and I are separated by three years difference, me being the middle child. My niece is my older sisters daughter. My parents divorced when I five years old and my father never played a role in our lives after the divorce. Our mother passed away from cancer in June 2008. When looking at the two families there are many similarities that we share. First is that we are all very hard working people. This I believe is a very common trait amongst the two cultures. My wife's parents continue to work well past their retirement years. She and her brother both have successful careers. My wife's family is a very proud family who look out for one another. They are always there for each other in a time of need. My family is also very successful in the careers they have chooses and are also a very proud family who are always there for each other. Another similarity between the two families is that we both have a common religious bond in that we are Roman Catholic. Growing up my wife's family as well as mine went to church and followed the guidelines of the church until we got older and we grew away from the church. When looking at the differences between the two families and our cultures there are many that stand out. Family structure is concerned with how the family is organized in terms of power and decision making authority. Male led household are usually called patriarchal

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