Does your family have a theme?

[janelane]

So I've been watching a lot of trading spouses and wife swap lately. I understand they pick extreme families to put together, both to create friction and a learning experience. They get families who are extremely passionate about onecertain thing, get them to switch with the polar opposite. I was just wonder how often this actually happens, that a whole family's interests are shared and frequently focussed on, like the Pirate family or I think there's been a few families that have had family bands, or sporty families where everyone plays something.

I guess DH and I are artsy nerds. But we have varying interests. He's a very talented artist, I can barely draw stick figures and really don't have any desire to do anything past using coloring books. He's a graphic designer, into computers, I can barely email, and even Webmonkey for kids confused me. I collect dolls, something I can't see his 6'5" hairy self ever wanting to have anything to do with beyond thinking I'm terribly adorable for it We both love music, but it's not to the point that we have a band together. Love lit, but we don't run our own book club or anything. We do have a lot in common but certainly not as involved as some families.

My bro and I had night and day interests growing up, too.

So, what is your family like? Do you have lots of different interests? Do you come together with one particular interest?

[justpeachy92]

Very interesting question. I have never thought about a theme for our family, we are laid back to a point. I don't like my days to run by schedules, though if my kids want to do activities that involve a schedule we implement it. Though I prefer to know that a friend could call me to meet for coffee and I can go without looking at a calendar.
As for dh and I, it is true that opposite attract. Other than our love for family not to sure what we have in common. We don't read the same books, like the same music or movies.
Though I can say if I was ever on wife swap I would be the overly compulsive neat freak.

[forHISglory]

I would classify the family I grew up in as "fun-loving cooks". We were (and are) always in the kitchen, experimenting, tasting, entertaining. When we now get together as adults, we are still in the kitchen. Our days are punctuated by laughter, and it has always been so. Laughter and food were in our mouths.

The family I am now a part of (hubby and I) can be classified as "adventurous travelers." We love to travel and love to explore. We don't do fun parks or touristy spots. Rather we travel to explore beauty, history, arts, etc. We like to explore travel in different ways: camping, train, plane, river boat, ship. We travel both abroad and at home. We'll spend the winter planning and the summer traveling. This summer we are flying to CA and also traveling by Delta Queen Riverboat up the Ohio River. Can't wait!

[Momto2Boyz]

I love this question! Dh and I always laugh at the families chosen for trading spouses and wife swap. We both agree that we would never be picked because we are too *normal*...Granted, we are bias!

If I had to pick a theme for our family it would be, to my chagrin, sports. I am the only one in the house that is not a total sports nut, but to spend time as a family, I will watch the Sox play (White Sox that is) or the Bears, and both DH and I try to make all the kids Little League games. Both our boys would live, eat and breath baseball if given a chance (and so would DH as long as a he got a break....for football).

[bumplett]

Those show crack me up!

I have no idea who my opposite would be as a wife swap ~ but it's probably the family that raises the chickens just to eat them, and breeds foo foo dogs in the back yard.



as for a "family theme" - nope, I don't think so - I think we are each so different from one another with our own interests and goals - I don't think I can specify a theme -

hmmmmmmmm........... I'll put more thought into it though....

[perSue]

no we dont have a theme...

but, we all have varying interests... which I think is what makes a family learn about one another (and themselves)... to share in things you may not have yourself.

most of the stuff i'm interested in... these guys have NO interest in.

i sew, knit, crochet, enjoy painting, love to cook, love nature/outdoors, gardening, planting, reading, writing, art, etc.

they enjoy being outside... but dont necessarily appreciate nature the way I do. (ie, bird watching, sitting under a tree on a breezy day just "being"...etc).

but i also love sports... and being active... and that's one thing dh and I have in common.

ds, not really into sports/activity (unless it's video game related) *sigh*

otherwise... we're a pretty good blend of this and that...
which I think is neat and works (for the most part) for us.

[Moor]

i guess you could call our family a medieval one. we are all really into medieval things.
i have a coat of arms with two swords through it on my living room wall. i have spears and a double bladed axe on my walls also. i collect dragons and fairies. we go to the ren faires when they are in town. i even make that sort of clothing. for all of us. the kids are into it also.
when my ds got married, he made sure that his wife liked that kind of stuff also. he took her to the ren fair with us last year. told her that she needed to get used to it, because we go as a family every year. lol
oldest dd took her bf with us last year and told him the same thing.
we have went to the fair here, every year of our marriage and have went to several other's in other states.

[DAAC3DEC]

we are a bit time blended family.........hubbie is mister hunter and harley man, oldest is big into art and wants to "tattoo's (??!!??)---my middle daughter loves any and all sports, my youngest is the social one who is always on the go----i am the arty, vegetarian that does yoga and meditates--it would be hard for someone to "get us".......................

[Cricket1]

This is a great questions because whenever DH and I watch those shows, we wonder who we would get to switch with. Both of my boys are into sports and so is DH, but it isn't strong enough to be a theme. I think if we swapped with someone it would be a mom who is high strung and is uber scheduled. I'm a pretty laid back, fly by the seat of my pants kinda girl.

[latierra84]

I guess I'd have to say that we're very focused and responsible "youngsters". both in our early/mid twenties and have very specific financial goals. we do not drink/party/smoke/curse. both very calm and open-minded. i like a clean, simple house. DH & I are both very earth friendly. We believe in being humans before being anything else. Example.... be a human being (a decent person with feelings and original thoughts) before you are a liberal/conservative. be a human before you're a super christian/hippie/fashionista. at the end of the day, we are all just people.

[Ceashels]

DH and I both enjoy games, table/board games for me until he introduced me to online gaming (mmorpg's for those in the geek crowd). We try to host or attend a game day were we gather and play strategy games with friends on a monthly basis, but we've been too busy and I miss it.

We are also Renessaince Rats and attend the local festival every season a minimum of each weekend if we can. It was his picture in full garb that broke the ice when we first met.

[stinkbug]

Hmmmm...interresting. I think those shows are somewhat staged, and complete train wrecks!!!
Anyway, Dh and I are into a lot of the same things, but have losts of stuff we do on our own. He is a woodworker, hunter, and is always tinkering with something! He does taxidermy (don't laugh...it put him through 9 years of school with no loans!) He's not into sports (except Nascar) so he doesn't spend his off time on his butt in front of the TV! He is always *busy* doing something.
I do quilting, beading, and decorating stuff. He has a great color sense and a lot of artistic talant. He always helps pick colors when we are working on the house, etc. Together we garden!! We both love to be outside with our hands in the dirt. We built our pond, did our own landscaping, planting, etc. We cook together, grocery shop together, hang out together (usually in a giggle fit over something) We have the same twisted sense of humor and totally *get* each other. When the weather is good, we spend our time on the motorcycle cruising the backroads....
Oh...and we're both animal people. He will take in and hand raise any critter that needs care. Everyone knows to call him, especially if it involves birds! This year we had 8 canadian geese hatch in our nest box Mostly, as long as we're together, we're happy. Most people think we are boring because we don't do a lot of *exciting* things. We're real homebodies.

[Neeley]

I would not call it a theme, but we have a huge interest in our kids' sports and activities. We literally only have two weeks out of the year that are totally free from any kind of sport or activity and that is when we take our big vacation. We do not limit the amount of actvites the kids participate in. They decide which ones, how many, etc....

DH and I both make it a point to attend every practice, every game, and every related event. The majority of the time DH is either the head or assistant coach, I am the team mom for their sports and I keep the scorebook for their baseball/softball games.

DD plays in a summer volleyball league, fall volleyball league, fall softball league, winter basketball league, volunteers for a spring baseball league for disabled children and adults and volunteers all year for a history museum. She puts in an average of 200-300 hours a year volunteering at the history museum alone. She bats, works on her basketball and volleyball skills several days a week.

DS ha been playing on a travel football team for 6 years (since he was 6 and has 2 more years before he is too old for this particular travel league), a travel baseball team, a regular Dixie Youth league spring baseball team(same thing as Babe Ruth or Little League baseball), the all-star team for the Dixie Youth league, a fall baseball league, and a winter basketball league. He has a private batting coach he sees weekly, takes private battng practice daily where he hits between 200-400 balls per day, year round. He also attends any baseball or football training camps around here.

It is not uncommon for us to be at the ball park several nights a week until 9:00 or 10:00 practicing with other members of the travel team or other people we know will be on the all-star team with DS. If we are at home, ESPN is always on at least one of the TVs. We try to watch the Yankee's games, Tennessee Vols and Auburn Tigers football, NASCAR cup races and Colts football games.

[annymoll]

I would classify us as work oriented. I do not understand the concept of simplifying life by working less. To us, work is our life and it is enjoyable. We both like order and structure.We are health and athletic orientated.We enjoy travel and antiques in our free time.My total opposite:someone unstructured, someone lazy, someone sloppy(both in home and in person)someone loud.Someone without aspirations or direction in life.

[MomK]

Yes, our family has a theme. Our theme is baseball and softball. We (more DH than myself) coach a recreational, city league 9 and Under Baseball team for DS and a USSSA Competitive League 14 and Under Girls' FastPitch Softball team for DD.

We definitely spend the majority of our free time playing or practicing these two sports.

Sometimes it's a lot of fun getting together with the other families and traveling to the games/tournaments we attend. Other times, I get tired of all that togetherness with other families!