Family Diversity – Respectful Support for Different Family Realities

Not every family corresponds to the image of “father, mother, child, single-family home.” This unit helps you reduce prejudices and think beyond yourself. With impulses from systemic counseling, research on family diversity, and the ethical-dialogical ideas of Jesper Juul, you will learn to acknowledge parents’ lived realities – without judging, lecturing, or trivializing.

Warm up

List five family forms or life situations you have encountered spontaneously.

  • What do you find easy in working with legal guardians – and what do you find rather difficult?

Talk with your buddy:

  • Which families are (unconsciously) often excluded or perceived as “deficient”?

Learn

Family is not defined only biologically or legally, but is a place of relationship, responsibility, and care.

There is a pluralization of family forms, alongside the classic conservative image of father-mother-child:

Single-parent & blended families
Same-sex or queer parents
Multigenerational households or foster care constellations
Families with a refugee background
Families affected by illness
Families affected by poverty
Families affected by homelessness

Relationships do not need a norm. What matters is taking responsibility, dialogue, and integrity.

-Jesper Juul

 

Stance for your work:

You do not have to "understand" families in order to respect them.
There is no deficient family – but many have fewer resources available.
Your task is not to demand adaptation, but to open up access.

 

Find out more and read:

Understanding family diversity

Done? Write down

3 challenges for families under strain
3 possible strategies for support by your institution

Talk with your buddy:

Where can you build structural bridges?

 

Dive in 1

Sentences like “They never get in touch anyway” or “I had a family like that last year too” show unconscious judgments. A systemic stance means: I assume that every person has good reasons for their behavior.

Jesper Juul speaks of equal dignity: Parents do not have less worth because they are linguistically, socially, or emotionally overwhelmed. Relationships do not need equality, but respect.

Practical principles:

Offer relationship, do not impose it.
Make information accessible and barrier-free.
Communicate support not as “help for the weak,” but as a “service for parents.”

To get more information, read:


Do not judge parents – strengthen them instead

Done?

Together with your buddy: work with case examples and think about...

Could these people/families meet all the requirements you set?
    Also include supposed small things and what is taken for granted, like homework, parent evenings/meetings, etc.
What do these parents really need?
What can you refer them to beyond your institution?

Case examples:

Mother with a cognitive impairment
Family facing housing insecurity
Father who is barely reachable due to shift work
Family with 6 school-age children
...

 

 

Transfer 1

"Removing barriers" in your own materials

Choose a letter to parents or an invitation from your practice.

Revise it using the following criteria:
    plain language, short sentences
    icons or pictograms for important information
    respectful form of address: no blaming

Share the new text with your buddy – what feels different?

 

Transfer 2

"If I were you..."

Together with your buddy

Put yourself in the perspective of an overburdened parent.

Act out a scene (e.g., child without breakfast, late pick-up).
Consider: What do you think spontaneously as an educator? What do you say instead from a systemic perspective?

Optional: Switch roles – how does it feel to be “seen” instead of judged?

 

Reflect

Reflect

  • How much space do I give to parents’ lived realities – even when they do not match my expectations?

  • Where can I be more inclusive, more mindful, and more helpful in the future?

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