Families, who’d have em?

Here in the United Kingdom, the Queen celebrates 60 years in the same job; that takes some doing. All those years ago, she vowed to fulfil her duties to the nation and the commonwealth to the best of her abilities. But what struck me as I watched her step out onto the Buckingham Palace balcony to greet her public was her family, standing by her side.

She’s not just the Queen, she is a mum, auntie, sister, daughter, grandmother and wife too! Every family has at least one of these along with divorce, adultery, disagreements, weddings, pets and toe sucking. Any of these sound familiar? We’re not so different from the royals are we?

The Jubilee concert had everyone dancing, hearing Stevie Wonder would definitely have had my family up on their feet…not that we need an excuse to have a boogie but I noticed that the royals just nodded, they didn’t get up so there must have been a lot of tapping feet…Prince Harry would have found this very difficult given that he likes to party. At least they knew the words to ‘Delilah’, that’s something I suppose. This is what we call protocol, things they cannot be seen to do; etiquette, manners, rules of appropriate behaviour. That’s the way they do things.

This is where we are different from them. They are not as free as people may think. My aunties had to follow this kind of ‘protocol’ when they were young ladies, getting up and dancing was unthinkable and my grandfather would have shown them the back of his hand if they so much as wiggled. These days fathers dance with their daughters and encourage them to take the floor; you can still be a lady and dance at the same time. Pole dancing being the exception of course!

The best family to belong to is the one that encourages you to grow and act in a way that is true to you. Famous families are an example of this: James Franco and his brothers, The Jacksons, The Bee Gees and the Simpsons…yes there is a certain message in each cartoon that would suggest they are very supportive of each other; regardless of the mayhem.

Immediate family is our backbone but extended family our friends, are special. They can be just as supportive of you when you need it. They have a good ear too and will listen when no one else will.

Family, everyone has at least one; if you think you haven’t…think again.