Young Writers Society

*I wasn't really sure where to put this, but research seemed like the best place. Feel free to move.*

I'm planning on writing a script that will hopefully turn into an entire series. It's a family drama, a bit like Everybody Loves Raymond, but focusing on the kids a lot more.

I want to know what the 'normal' or 'average' family is, so I'm going to ask you a few questions.

Thaks to all who help me.



QUESTIONS

1. How many children in your family?

2. How old is each child?

3. Are your parents divorced?

4. If yes to question 3, have they re-married?

5. How much money do you get monthly?

6. Do you have a job or drive?

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone?

8. Is your family religious?

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they?

10. What is your first language?



Thanks everybody!

QUESTIONS

1. How many children in your family? one. Izm an only child.

2. How old is each child? 17

3. Are your parents divorced? Nope

4. If yes to question 3, have they re-married?

5. How much money do you get monthly? It varries. I'm supposed to get 50, but I normally don't.

6. Do you have a job or drive? I have my permit. I don't have a job.

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone? I like to spend time alone. But, that's just me.

8. Is your family religious? Yes.

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they? Sort of. chinese, and I'm taking spanish.

10. What is your first language? American English.

Sorry if this didn't help a lot. I saw no one had posted and decided to. My family is not your normal family though. Lol. sorry. Hope you can use some of that!

Jamie

QUESTIONS

1. How many children in your family? 5

2. How old is each child? 21, 21, 19, me 15, 11.

3. Are your parents divorced? Yes

4. If yes to question 3, have they re-married? yes, both have

5. How much money do you get monthly? me nothing

6. Do you have a job or drive? I drive

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone? The 21 year olds work non-stop, 19 year old is too concerned with her collage, I spend more time with my friends than anything, 11 year old sits on his computer nore than I do.

8. Is your family religious? One side is. So four of the childredn are

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they? No, but the 19 year old took latin for three years and learned nothing

10. What is your first language? English

I have a boring family but almost everyone sees thir family as boring.
Church

1. How many children in your family? Two: my older brother, John, and me.

2. How old is each child? John is 17, and I'm 14.

3. Are your parents divorced? Yes. They've been seperated for three years, and they just got divorced. My dad's a loser, we had a restraining order against him, and all that lovely stuff, so it got pushed out a lot.

4. If yes to question 3, have they re-married? No. I have no clue if my dad's dating, and my mom has seen several men, but none of them were serious.

5. How much money do you get monthly? In allowence, $32. Because of my age, I get paid under the table, so I will randomly be given a bunch of money from my job. Mainly I just get riding (horses) time for the work, though. (In the summer I can get hundreds of dollars from my job, though. It all depends - I hate being 14. )

6. Do you have a job or drive? I do have a job - I work at a horse barn. I teach, clean the barn, excersice the horses, etc. I'm pretty much the barn manager, but obviously am too young to technically be called that. And I'm too young to drive, although I was taught to drive the tractor, and am going to learn to drive the car in a field at the barn this summer with some friends.

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone? My brother's with friends all the time. I'm a loner, and am only with friends at school, and at the barn. I'm only close with my barn friends, and during the summer, when I'm there six days a week, 14 hours a day, I'm with them non-stop.

8. Is your family religious? Nope.

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they? My mom was fluent in French, and now she's trying to relearn it. My brother knows a bit of Korean, since he does Martial Arts, and tried Tae Kwon Do. He also knows a bunch of Spanish. I'm just starting to learn Spanish.

10. What is your first language? English.

Hope that helped.

~JFW1415

QUESTIONS

1. How many children in your family? 6

2. How old is each child? 28 26 23 20 18 15

3. Are your parents divorced? yes

4. If yes to question 3, have they re-married? My dad has twice, my mom has once but she's divorced again

5. How much money do you get monthly? 80 dollers, I but my own food in the house though

6. Do you have a job or drive? Yup

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone? I couldn't really tell you, I am the only one living with my mom, all my siblings are older except my youngest sister but she lives with my dad. I am normally home alone all the time because my mom is with her boyfriend... if that makes any sense at all.

8. Is your family religious? Some of us are and some of us aren't. As a whole, no not really.

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they? My 26 year old sister knows English and German.

10. What is your first language? English

There is data on this stuff, more 'random' than a 'random' survey of a bunch of writers. If you want to find the real average family, use science and news sources. I applaud your idea, but the truth is, there is no average family. I'm not trying to be judgmental or 'hating' on your idea, but aren't most places a "melting pot" of cultures and ideas all blended into one society? In a dicatorship/communist area, you might have an 'average' family, but not here, or anywhere else in Western society.

-end of rant about non-average average-ness-

QUESTIONS

1. How many children in your family? Three.

2. How old is each child? Twenty-nine, Twenty-four and fifteen.

3. Are your parents divorced? No (though I often wish they are - they don't get along).


5. How much money do you get monthly? None.

6. Do you have a job or drive? Nope.

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone? Basing it on me I'd say about an hour or two with friends, a few hours with family, the rest on my own.

8. Is your family religious? Not really.

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they? Both my parents are fluent in English and Greek and my sisters know a fair bit of Greek (nearly fluent) and I know Spanish and English.

10. What is your first language? English although my dad talks to me in Greek, I answer in English.

Hope that helps.

Alainna
xxxx

Moving Forward wrote:There is data on this stuff, more 'random' than a 'random' survey of a bunch of writers. If you want to find the real average family, use science and news sources. I applaud your idea, but the truth is, there is no average family. I'm not trying to be judgmental or 'hating' on your idea, but aren't most places a "melting pot" of cultures and ideas all blended into one society? In a dicatorship/communist area, you might have an 'average' family, but not here, or anywhere else in Western society.

-end of rant about non-average average-ness-

I would have to agree, especially considering the members here are from pretty much every English speaking country in the world. It's too wide to get an average.

^^ Yes, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to answer!

QUESTIONS

1. How many children in your family? 2

2. How old is each child? 16 and 11

3. Are your parents divorced? Yes

4. If yes to question 3, have they re-married? No, but they separated and got back together on two occasions (though neither lasted long - a few months, if that)

5. How much money do you get monthly? Around £40 from my mum

6. Do you have a job or drive? Nope

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone? Excluding school hours, I see my friends a couple of times a week on average over the holidays (weekends during school, not so much). My brother sees people every day. Time spent at home alone... a few hours, but we pass each other by.

8. Is your family religious? Not particularly

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they? Not really, but my brother and I have a very basic knowledge of Welsh

10. What is your first language? English

1. How many children in your family? Five.

2. How old is each child? 22, 20, 17, 14, 14

3. Are your parents divorced? Nope.

5. How much money do you get monthly?

I'm too old really for pocket money, but since I kind of house keep while my parents are working, and look after the younger ones when they go away, I generally get quite a bit for clothes shopping and a wedge into my post office account if I've been doing loads of stuff to help out.

6. Do you have a job or drive? Neither.

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone?

My brother's grown up and left home; he lives in a shared house so all the time he's not at work. My middle sister's at boarding school, so wouldn't have a clue. The two younger ones just spend a lot of time on the computer, but during the summer they're out more swimming in the lake with their friends.

8. Is your family religious?

Not really; all us kids are athiests, my dad says he's an agnostic and my mum believes in God in a vague kind of way.

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they?

My mum speaks fluent french, the two younger ones speak fluent German (and kind of swiss german, which is the extremely difficult local dialect). I speak ok french that I learnt at school.

10. What is your first language?

English.

1. How many children in your family? Three

2. How old is each child? 14, 16, 18

3. Are your parents divorced? Yep.

4. If yes to question 3, have they re-married? Neither of them are. My Mother was supposed to get married, she was engaged and everything, but then her fiance died.

5. How much money do you get monthly? £45 for doing various chores weekly.

6. Do you have a job or drive? No job, no-one wants to hire me. I'm learning to drive, though.

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone? At home we all tend to keep ourselves to ourselves. My sister does a lot with her friends, I'm normally studying.

8. Is your family religious? We go to church and all, but I wouldn't say we were particularly religious.

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they?
My and my sisters all speak varying degrees of German.

10. What is your first language?
English.

QUESTIONS

1. How many children in your family?
Four

2. How old is each child?
Brother 22, Brother 21, Me 14, Sister 7.

3. Are your parents divorced?
No. They've been together for twenty years. Mother got knocked up at 17.

4. If yes to question 3, have they re-married?
N/A

5. How much money do you get monthly?
During school, usually none to twenty. Over the summer fiftyish, if I babysit my sister.

6. Do you have a job or drive?
I'm fourteen. So, at the moment, no.

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone?
Brothers spend a lot of time with their friends, I barely go out (I have no life) and my little sister always has friends over or is going to friends houses. I'm usually left home alone a lot.

8. Is your family religious?
Nope. I'm an Athiest but my parents and brothers are Christian.

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they?
Not exactly two. Of course, we all know English and every body in my family (excluding my dad and little sister) has taken four or five years of German.

10. What is your first language?
English.

REPLIES TO QUESTIONS

1. How many children in your family? Just me

2. How old is each child? Sixteen

3. Are your parents divorced? Yes

4. If yes to question 3, have they re-married? Neither have done so.

5. How much money do you get monthly? No regular income.

6. Do you have a job or drive? Not as of writing, although considering a summer job.

7. How much time does each child spend with their friends? Of the time spent at home, how much is spent alone? [/b]I only spend time with my friends at school or on trips/outings. I spend most of my time at home alone or with mum.[/b]

8. Is your family religious? No.

9. Does anybody know two or more languages? What are they? [/b]We all speak Chinese to some degree; I can also speak French and Spanish. There are a few German speakers too.[/b]

10. What is your first language? ENGLISH!

How many children in your family? Well, let's see. Umm...5. Most of them don't live at home so I have to think for a while.
How old is each child? 33, 31, 28, 15, 13.
Are your parents divorced? Nuh-uh.
How much money do you get monthly? Like, allowance? Well, my mom cleans houses and I help, so I get paid from that. 'Bout 75 or 50, usually.
Do you have a job or drive? Not technically, but I help my mom clean and I volunteer at the library every summer. And, no, no driving for me. I want innocent cats and mailboxes to live.
(Not exactly sure of the answer to no. 7, since most of the kids aren't at home anymore.)
Is your family religious?: We love God and go to church every Sunday and Wednesday. Yes, we are.
Does anybody know two or more languages? Umm, I can speak tiny bits of a lot of things, including but not limited to: Russian (nearly fluent!) Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Ukrainian, Serbian, Croatian and Belarussian. My mom can pick up a bit of Russian, Spanish and French, but she has to listen hard. My dad says he's lucky if he can just speak English, lol. My older sisters took french in school but can't remember hardly any, my younger sister takes spanish and is about to start latin, and my brother (like my dad) is lucky if he can just speak english every day.
What is your first language? English.