My Family doesn't Understand Me

At 16-18 years of age young people can take on most of the rights and responsibilities of adulthood /ə’dΛlθud/ зрелость, взрослость. Before this occurs, however, teenagers go through the period of adolescence /,ædəu’lesns/ подростковый возраст and most of them experience conflicts at that time. They change rapidly both physically and emotionally and they search self-identity as they grow up and become more independent. Sometimes teenagers develop interests and values different from those of their parents. That sets a conflict between the two generations. And that's why teens begin to be influenced by the values thrusted (thrust /θrΛst/навязывать) on them by their friends and different people. The reason is that young people don't always share the interests or viewpoints of their parents. Such traditional disagreements as: the time to come home at night, doing work about the house and the friends to spend free time with - lead to misunderstanding. At this period of their life they face a number of problems: difficulties in their relationships with parents or problems at school, drinking alcohol or using drugs. Moreover, some children run away from their homes.

And this is the fault of the families as it is the parents who should pro­vide emotional, physical, and educational support. But it often happens that parents do not care about their children, don't talk their problems out. It is ex­actly at that age when young people need a piece of advice or help. Consider­ing all that teens cannot talk to parents frankly. Different TV-programmes and magazines for the young come to their rescue. In case of need you can also dial /’dail/ a special telephone number, the so-called "telephone of trust".

But it’s not the way out. Parents should help their children and find the right approach to them so as to make everything clear. Being able to view the problems more rationally /’ræ∫nəli/ разумно, they should try to do their best, to resolve решать them. A family is like a warm nest where everybody can find comfort. We need to learn to talk our problems over in our family (talk over обсудить). If we are able to do it everything will be all right.

My Family

Now I am going to tell you about my family. We are a family of five. We think we are a large and friendly family. So we are happy to be living together and are getting on all right. I still live with my parents but my brother and sister left home some time ago.

To begin with, I’m going to talk first about my dad. My parents both work, my father's name is Nicolai, he's 58 years old and he is a dentist. He has always loved sport and regularly plays tennis or goes swimming. In the winter he always goes skiing, either cross-country in the forest (cross-country skiing лыжные гонки) or when he can he goes on holiday to the mountains and he skis there. My father is a very positive man and always helps me to look at what is good in life when things go wrong. Sometimes however he can be very difficult to talk to, for example when I need money!

My mother's name is Julia and she's a chef /∫ef/ in a restaurant in the city. She is a fantastic cook and can cook great dishes from all over the world, although I think the best she cooks is traditional Ukrainian food. She is 54 years old and the best mother I could have wished for. I remember when I was at school she would always find time to sit and have a cup of coffee with me and listen to my problems when I came home.

My brother and sister are much older than me, my brother is 32 years old now, his name's Andrei and he's married with two children. Andrei left home when he was very young, 19 years old, to work in a restaurant like my mother but now he's a salesman in a shop which sells televisions, videos and stereo systems. My sister is 30 years old and she's a nurse, her name's Ira. She has three children but she is divorced now. She finds it difficult to find the time to work a lot because her children are still young and take up (отнимать время) a lot of her time but she manages well. When we all lived together I didn't get on well with my brother and sister, in fact we were always arguing. But now we don't live together we really miss each other.

Put it into a few words, we are a united and friendly family.