To get Consideration???

Question

"Despite all the common family conflicts, family members usually get special consideration just because they are family"Please help me find out the meaning of "get

Avangi · Accepted Answer

"Special consideration" is something of a fixed expression.

"To be considerate" is to think about the needs of others and try to accomodate them.

Often people in some position of authority must make decisions which effect the lives of others. To do so, they must consider certain factors.

Your sentence suggests that family members are treated better (by the authorities?) then are non-family members. We might say that more allowances are made for family members. The authorities tend to lean in favor of family members when making their decisions. (The sentence is not very specific.)

Edomarish · Answer

"Americans often justify special treatment of relatives by quoting the expression - Blood is thicker than water -"

The above sentence follows the phrase, I mentioned first.

And I think that, in spite of their bad attitude, American family members (especially with bad treatment) get special respect (esteem) from the kinder members of family. So to my opinion, "consideration", in this context means JUSTIFICATION.
DID I GET RIGHT?

Avangi · Answer

Okay. It was really unclear to me who was providing the special consideration to whom. That's why I went off on the "authorities" kick.

There's been a lot in the news lately about parental rights and child protective services and whether the government should remove children when a parent is misbehaving. I thought you were talking about special consideration from/by the courts and other authorities, extended to family members, possibly in criminal and immigration proceedings. I know this is confusing. I don't mean "family members of the authorities." I mean family members of the people involved in the issues.

But you're really talking about the prodigal son, or the boss giving a cushy job to his nephew.

I'm not sure about "justification." Do you mean, "My son is "justified" in robbing the bank / beating his wife simply because he's my son?" By "justification," you mean "I will deem this to be a righteous act because it was committed by a family member?

I think I'll stick with my "special allowance" synonym. When decisions need to be made, we tend to throw in something extra for family members - an extra consideration / allowance which would not be given to an outsider.

- A.

Anonymous · Answer

Dear Avangi,

By saying JUSTIFICATION, I mean that Although there are some problems in the family between members (especially struggle between husband and wife for dominance of the family, sibling rivalry, generation gap, ans so on), they enjoy special respect/esteem and justify each others bad attitudes and treatments just because they are family.

The above definition itself reflects the following proverb "Blood is thicker than water"

"Allowance" - do you mean respect/esteem, or benifit/grant??

Avangi · Answer

Anonymous "Allowance" - do you mean respect/esteem, or benifit/grant??

I meant benifit/grant, but not necessarily in a material way. And I'm not throwing "justification" out.

But I can't help linking "special consideration" with some kind of decision, or judgement. While making our decision, or formulating our judgement, we make allowance(s) for the fact that this is a family member.

And in your original sentence, you cannot remove "special" from the expression. What it means is that person A receives a certain consideration (or an extra amount of consideration) which person B does not receive (or would not receive were he the one being judged.)

According to your scenario, A is a family member and B is not.

To get Consideration???

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