Biography

My name is Mattie Whitman and I am a senior Sociology major at Siena College. My hometown is Petersburgh, New York. I am who I am today because of how my parents raised me to be independent and hardworking, while always being appreciative of what I have in life.

Both of my parents were raised in small town, mostly agricultural, communities. My father was born in 1949 and my mother in 1962, a historical time known as the baby boom. My father has four brothers and sisters, while my mother is number six of eight children. Both sets of my grandparents were a part of the breadwinner-homemaker family  where the father was employed while the mother was unemployed (Cohen 2015:17). In my grandparents’ time, there was a clear division in gender roles that were not usually challenged.

It was not until the 196os and the 1st modernity that things started changing. Most of my aunts and uncles, by this time, were born and were getting jobs and starting their professional lives. Later, most of my mother’s siblings bucked the social norm and had children out of wedlock and prior to graduating high school. This made my mother’s home a multigenerational household where my cousins were being raised not only by their parents, but by my grandparents and aunts and uncles as well. The multigenerational household created an atmosphere of closeness that has yet to disappear.

My father’s family was a bit more on the traditional side. My dad was raised by two Roman Catholics. My grandfather was a farmer by trade at this time and had come from a long line of farmers. My grandmother came from a more well-to-do family from right here in Latham. Both of my grandparents believed in having their children receive a catholic education as well as working. My father and his brothers were working on the family farm by the time that they were seven years old. Because religion was an important part of his life, my father decided after high school to go into the seminary to become a priest. While there for two years, he found that some of the catholic teachings he could not believe in. He left the seminary and took a job as a mechanic at Adirondack Beverages, Inc. while starting his own farm. This left him with only about two years worth of post high-school graduation, which is 26% of the baby boomer population.

My mother is an elementary school teacher, meaning that she was the real breadwinner of our immediate family. She had gotten her bachelor’s and master’s degree from the College of Saint Rose. Already the difference in wages between my parents made my family a little different. It took me until I was in high school to understand that men generally make more money than women and that men are “supposed” to be the main money maker of a family. That being said, when my father passed away it was not hard to think of my mother as the head of the household. In 2015, over 80% of the single parent households were headed by women. This shows that now single parent households are very common. The power of the mother or father is still reinforced by single parent households but there is not a split of power.

Since my father died, I became more than a sibling to my younger sister. My power in our family increased because of the need to have another person have more responsibility within our three person family.

My sister, mother and I at my high school graduation.

Based on Parent.com’s description of firstborns, I am reliable, conscientious, and structured. All true. Using the life course perspective, I can assume that one of my children will exhibit the same traits as myself because I am very much like my mother (Cohen 2015:23). Even though she was not a firstborn, she is one of the gap children mentioned in the Parent.com article, exhibiting firstborn characteristics. My mother’s grandchildren will exhibit similar traits as her but perhaps in different ways depending on how my sister and I decide to raise our children.

There are stark differences between my grandparents’ lifetime and mine. The average family income in the 1960s was $5700 compared to $53,657 in 2014. Not only have incomes changed, but also our family structure. Both sets of my grandparents were married for more than 50 years, had children before the age of 22, and lived well into their seventies. My mother became a widow in her mid-forties and had two children later in life. My mother is now engaged and we are slowly creating our own personal family (Cohen 2015:6).

My sister, mom, her fiance, and me on vacation.

I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends. I work as an office assistant part time at pediatrician’s office and I absolutely love it. The job started off with me scanning patient paper charts into a new electronic health record to working the front desk while answering phones and scheduling appointments. Around campus, I am a Resident Assistant in Hennepin Hall. I thoroughly enjoy the community that I am a part of in this building, as the staff members are most of my best friends and the residents keep me on my toes. The RA job lets me be independent while requiring me to be on top of my game all the time and is constantly putting me out of my comfort zone.

References:

Cohen, Philip N. 2015. The Family: Diversity, Inequality, and Social Change. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

http://www.history.com/topics/baby-boomers

Click to access mmi-older-boomer-demographic-profile.pdf

https://singlemotherguide.com/single-mother-statistics/

http://www.parents.com/baby/development/social/birth-order-and-personality/

Click to access p60-039.pdf

Click to access p60-252.pdf