The Family Life Cycle

I really enjoyed learning about The Family Life Cycle this week. I had never really thought about the fact that families go through phases before, but after I read this section the concept made a lot of sense. There are typically seven stages in the life cycle of a family. The first of which is establishing a family; this is when a couple first gets married or first starts living together and figures out what it is like to live together. The next stage is enlarging the family, which is when couples first start having children and the beginning years of those children’s lives. Typically the children are not in school yet and are still learning basic things like talking and emotions. The third stage is developing a family, which is when the children get a little older and start entering school. For families that have many children or children that are far apart in age, these two phases can sometimes overlap. The fourth stage is encouraging independence which is when families encourage their children to develop their own interests an social networks. This stage typically occurs when the children are in high school or before they leave home. When the children do leave home and start their lives independent of their parents, is the next stage which is Launching Children. The “empty nest” or Postlaunching of Children stage occurs next. This is the stage where many couples have to figure out how to be a couple again without children. The final stage of the family cycle is the Retirement stage which is when couples no longer need to work full time.