Ever since we've been talking about class in class I feel as though I've been noticing a few more class distinctions in my daily life. For instance, my family almost always goes to visit my Grandparents and my Dad's side of our extended family for thanksgiving. My extended family does not necessarily dislike my own nuclear family, but as you may know, I am an odd card and the rest of my family is a bit nutty as well. My nuclear family, particularly my two sisters and I, rarely have much to talk about with my extended family and feel like we are constantly being judged or watched.

While there are some religious differences (my extended family are Southern Baptists and we are Presbyterian) as well as a few differences in political views, none of these topics are really challenged (and are intentionally not mentioned by us) in our group gatherings. I think one of the factors that may lead to these awkward exchanges may be the class differences in that most of my extended family is a different class than that of my nuclear family, though I am not sure. My nuclear family definitely has a little more liberal leaning, but my father gets along well with everyone, perhaps because he has the same sort of cultural capital. Has anyone else experienced a similar situation to this, or am I just weirded out for no reason?

Chase, I understand completely. Although I wouldn't say that the difference is necessarily because of class in my family, my nuclear family does seem to have a different cultural capital than much of my extended family. I guess this goes to show that it isn't just class that gives you a different experience and cultural capital.

I have extended family that are from a different culture. When we visit them which is very rare because they live in TX it tends to be awkward because what they like to do and they way they act are different than ours. We love seeing them but eventually it gets awkward and we do not what to do. the initial experience is great because we can learn more about each other and try new things when we meet. But yea i have experiences with my extended family where we are judging each other.

My immediate family is definitely different from my extended family. My mom has 4 sisters and 3 of them live on the property that they grew up on and my dad has 3 siblings and all of them live on the same property they grew up on. So, my mom are in some ways the odd balls of the family. My family sticks out even more since Everyone in the extended family is lives in rural areas and my immediate family lives in a more urban area. So it was always interesting visiting family because I had grown up in such a different place and with such a different experience from my cousins. Despite all of this, I feel like my family gets along fairly well, though like Chase's family we chose not to bring up the religious differences (extended family is almost completely Southern Baptist while my family is non-denominational) or other differences that we share, which is a shame in my opinion that we can't discuss and embrace our differences. (that sounded a little after-school special-ish, sorry)

I have never noticed a difference in cultural capital from my immediate family to my extended family as a whole. Everyone in my mom's family lives in the same town (600 people) where she grew up. They are farmers whereas my immediate family lives in a urban area, but I feel completely equal to them. My dad's family is more spread out with different occupations, but again I believe the cultural capital is the same. Sometimes I look down one of my cousins because she did not finish high school, but this does not drastically change her cultural capital.
The biggest difference in cultural capital that I have noticed, with someone who is close to me, is with my boyfriend. I had never thought about this difference until I visited his house and his family. The things that make me realize this are simple, however I build them up in my mind and sometimes I am nervous around his family. For example, his mom used to teach manners classes for children.... AND they called her Mrs. Manners. During my childhood, my parents never put me in a class like that so I am really self-conscious about my actions.

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Audrey Fowler

I feel the same way around my dad's side of the family. My uncle (my dad's brother) is very wealthy and that entire extended family has a completely different culture than my immediate family. It can be uncomfortable to be around my uncle's family because they are so different. Their lifestyle is something I could never imagine living myself. Its interesting to see how different cultures can be within one family because of class differences.

I have also felt this way around some of my extended family. We are from the same economic class but I think, in my case, it has to do with opinions on social issues. My family just seems to have a different outlook on the world from many members of my extended family. Its odd that we've all come from the same small town and shared so many experiences but can still have different opinions on many issues. I think it has to do with the fact that my parents exposed my brothers and I to a variety of different experiences growing up. They also did not reinforce the stereotypes that were shared by many people from my home town and ones that the rest of my family have been influenced by.

. My immediate family is in the same class as most of my extended family but even though my entire family, for the most part, gets along; my immediate family has different views than the rest. When we're all together we never talk about politics or religion, we talk about sports and crack jokes. I guess we all understand each others differences and never try to convert or persuade another to one side or the other. We only care about what's important to all of us and that's each other.

There is a noticeable class difference between my extended and immediate family. My extended family is also very diverse in terms of social class. A lot of my mother's side of the family is poor to lower middle class, while most of my father's family is wealthy. My immediate family is right in the middle. It is a very weird mix. It's sad to say, but growing up, we always spent more time with my father's wealthy family. I've never really felt uncomfortable with either side of my family, but the differences between us are very obvious.

When my mom side of the family has its family reunion it can get a little tense sometimes. I have family members who are very liberal and others who are very conservative. As a family we all try to get along, but once in a while a conversation will be started that deals with our President and the war in Iraq. These agruements have become heated and really pointless because neither side is going to change their view. That is why I never bring up politics when around family or friends.