Sociology Family Interview Paper

Family Interview Results Summary

As I was trying to decide which essay to write, I thought to myself that it would be very interesting to do a family interview on a close sibling discussing their views of dating and how their marriage unfolded. There were many different siblings I was considering, including my grandparents, but when it came down to it, I had to choose my mother because I was interested to see how my mother and father met, even though I got a brief description growing up. My mom was very pleased to be interviewed and so I sat down with her in the living room of our home and asked her a series of seven questions. The first question I asked my mother was how she met her spouse (my father). Her answer was, “In high school, I was a freshman and he was a junior and our friends introduced us one day at school.” I realized that my father is only a few years older than my mother so this made perfect sense to me. My second question for my mother was, “What was the courtship process like?” She replied, “It mainly consisted of socializing at school. We would spend time on weekends, either at one another’s home or attending social events.” I was not surprised by her answer because it was, perhaps, a typical one. The third question I asked her was, “How long did you date before considering marriage?” She replied, “We dated for about seven years before considering marriage.” I was very shocked by my mother’s response to this question. I knew they dated for a decent period of time, but had no idea it was for seven years. The fourth question I asked her was, “What kinds of activities did you and dad participate in?” She answered, “We would do many outdoor activities including four wheeling, camping, bonfires, and the movies on weekends.” I could relate to her answer on this because these activities are very similar to the ones I enjoy doing when dating a girl. I