The Family: Finch and Mason’s Negotiating Family Responsibilities

Consider the following questions: do you expect anyone to help you pay off your overdraft when you graduate? Do you hope that someone will provide you with emergency accommodation if you ever find yourself unable to afford a place of your own? What if you ever fall seriously ill: is there anyone you can rely on to look after you? Implicit in each of these questions is the assumption that we rather hope that we will have someone to fall back on in a time of need. For many people that someone will be a partner or a close friend, but it is also very likely that relatives such as parents, older siblings, grandparents even, will also come to mind as potential sources of help. But will they help you? And if they do, will accepting their help make you feel obligated to them? Will anything be expected of you in return? What if you cannot reciprocate? Or maybe you expect your relatives to help because you have supported them in some way in the past?