We might like to think that the family is a bounded entity where members can be themselves, grow, blow off steam, display their eccentricities, their true emotions, that is, a haven of safety in the big harsh judgmental and uncertain world.
And indeed, the good enough family is probably just that!
Systems theory suggests that even though the family is indeed bounded, it still has a substantial degree of openness.
The boundary can define the family, that is, give it an identity. But because it is also open, its identity is not fixed, as information, knowledge, feelings etc. flowing into and out of the family, and of course, growth itself, may cause changes in identity over time.
Mostly these changes in identity cause changes in the relationships within the family, and with other families.
Other families (i.e. the extended family, or indeed the small community, wherein the changes occur), will, for the purposes of this discussion in the next few posts, be called a network. (I use this term as it is the term often used in articles, books etc. about systems theory).
In the network, (extended families or small communities), open systems (families) will have relations with each other, and each system will determine to some extent how the network functions – even though changes might seem to be initially insignificant or barely noticeable.
You will probably see where I am going here, talking about relations, as relationships are in constant motion as I will discuss in the next post.