The Situation of the Burmese Family

Situation: an old father imposes a rule upon his adopted family preventing their knowledge and understanding of familial matters, claiming it was in the best interests of the family if they did not know everything, in the best interests of the collective. The old foreign father leaves the family, and the new stepfather leaves the same rule in place.

However, nowadays the family’s situation is changing, and the rest of the neighborhood knows that the family would be better off if all the family members were informed and understood how the family worked. But, the new stepfather is very controlling and scared to allow the family to flourish, and increasingly applies the archaic rule to diminish and belittle the rest of the family.

This situation, as we can all tell, cannot continue, especially since the supposedly prudent, judicial, and independent mother cannot bring herself to impose her will against the excesses of the stepfather. In order for things to change, one or two things must happen. The neighborhood has to use their influence to change the stepfather’s ways, or the mother must free herself from the restrictive bonds of her relationship with the stepfather.

It is time for the Burmese family to reconsider the nature of how their family works and to use all means to change the old rules of the father that remain. Though the stepfather may claim that the family is threatened by these changes, this is wholeheartedly false and positive change will illustrate that. Burmese brothers and sisters, it is time to change the roles of the parents in this family.

Help received: Freedom House Country Report for Myanmar, other blog encryption posts for some inspiration, Microsoft Word grammar and spelling check.

Levi C. Harmon