Marriages and Families “Changes” Imagine that, if in the 1920’s someone would have predicted that by the year 2000 one out of two marriages will end in divorce. The number of single parents will triple and lots of them will never marry. Stay at home moms will become almost obsolete and, gay people will want to get married and adopt children. Oh my, could you imagine the look on their faces? Families are defiantly different now than they were then, but the world is also different. Does this mean than families are deteriorating or are they stronger than ever? Maybe they are just changing and are still as strong as they once were. So many changes have taken place within the family. Some of them are higher divorce rates, more working mothers, more homosexual families, and a huge increase in children born out of wedlock. Many argue that most of the family’s problems come from the mother working outside of the house. The fact is that working mothers is nothing new. Mothers have always done something to help out, even if it was sewing, baking, or working on the land. In today’s world it’s very hard to make ends meet with only one income. Children benefit in some ways from their mom working. In this materialistic culture children want to have all the nice things and what’s hot. Working mothers spend on average just as much quality time with their children as non working mothers. Divorce, single parents, and unmarried parents have always existed. It is no doubt that the rates of them have increased dramatically. Is this a bad sign? This doesn’t mean that families are weak. It only means that people’s morals have changed. Families are not perfect, but they are strong. We also have more freedoms than we did in the 1920s. Women can now leave their husbands when things are unbearable. Women didn’t have as many choices then. Just because families seemed good then don’t mean that they were. It’s not something we should try to live up to. After all we are talking about a time when slaves were legal and treated badly. On the opposite side men don’t get to really be full time fathers after divorce. Divorce defiantly affects children. It is also better for children if they don’t have to live in a household of anger and unhappiness. Of
Traditional family in today’s society is rather a fantasy, a fairy tale without the happy ending. Everyone belongs to a family, but the ideology that the family is built around is the tell tale. Family structures have undeniably changed, moving away from the conventional family model. Nowadays more mothers work outside of the home, more fathers are asked to help with housework, and more women are choosing to have children solo. Today there are families that have a mom and a dad living in the same home, there are step-families, and families that have just a mother or just a father. Probably the most scrutinized could be families that consist of two moms or two dads. These are all examples of families and if all members are appropriately happy and healthy then these families are okay and should incontestably be accepted. So why is the fantasy of the traditional family model still so emphasized in our society? This expectation is degrading and misleading. Progressing with times one ought not be criticized or shunned for being true to their beliefs. It is those living falsely, living as society thinks they should that are the problem. Perhaps as a society, if there were more focus and concern for happiness and peace within ones family and fewer worries for the neighbor then there would be less dilemma.
“Leave it to Beaver” was a popular sitcom about a traditional nuclear family played out through the perspective of an adolescent boy whose curiosity and antics often got him into trouble (TV.com). Despite the show promoting positive family values, it also inadvertently shed light on a historically dark period of time in American history. One such instance was the lack of diversity on the show. Nearly 100% of the show’s characters were white throughout the six-season, 234 episode series. In the single episode that depicted an African-American, the character was a servant, further a reflection of the times when African-Americans where predominantly seen and treated as second-class citizens (Leaveittobeaver.org). However, this 1950’s ideal serves as a reference point to what typical families looked like and how vastly different they look now.
changing during the time. TV shows are a great example of how these differences are a big
According to the Council on Families In America, “for the average American, the probability that a marriage taking place today will end in divorce or permanent separation is calculated to be a staggering 60% and more than half of divorcing couples have children under the age of 18. The odds that a child today will witness the divorce of their parents, is twice as great as a generation ago, with as many as half of all children likely to experience a parental divorce before they leave home.”
productivity: An examination of gender, occupational status and work environments effects. Report available from The Merrill-Palmer Institute, 71-A East Ferry, Detroit, Michigan, 48202.
Walker, A.H. 1985. "Racial differences in patterns of marriage and family maintenance, 1890-1980." Pp. 87-112 in Feminism, Children, and the New Families, ed. S.M. Dornbusch and M.H. Strober. New York: Guilford Press.
Smock, Pamela and Wendy Manning. 2010. “New Couples, New Families: The Cohabitation Revolution in the United States.” Pp. 131-139 in Families as They Really Are, ed. Barbara Risman. NY: W.W. Norton and Company.
Family and Demographic change is a very broad yet understandable and extremely variable topic. Ever since human first landed or should I say spread out to create larger families and to reproduce in order to keep humanity survive and evolve and to create a more sustained and developed civilizations. Through civilizations and generations the population of each generation begins to increase dramatically that’s of course without the deaths of war and hunger or even human demand. In early civilizations the birth rate was reasonably high as well as the death rates, but ever since the rise of human logic and medicine, the death rates tremendously decreased although the birth rate started to increase.
Childbearing families within a healthy marriage, brings a healthier outlook for children. Understanding and implementing the modeling that mothers and fathers play in a child’s life are essential to a healthy family. There are many effects from divorcing and blended families in today’s society that causes the development for children to become intoxicated with higher risks of depression, behavior problems, decreased ability for academic achievement and emotional stability. The increase in economic resources dependency related to government support programs from non-married families hasn’t decreased in this century. Marriage gives an all-around increase
Families have changed greatly over the past 60 years, and they continue to become more diverse.
The television sitcom Modern Family produced by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd shows the many different types of a modern American family. According to Andrew Hampp, “The show is among the most-viewed scripted programs in prime time in its second season, averaging 11 million viewers during original airings and often ranked as the most DVRed program most weeks” (2). The television show is a frequently watched show and is liked by many viewers. Modern Family's storyline helps the families of viewers by being an influential and relatable show to different types of families. The show is about the lives of three different families that are all related. In the show there are Jay and Gloria, an intergenerational couple with two sons-- Manny (from Gloria’s previous relationship) and Joe, their new baby. Jay’s adult son Cameron is married to his gay partner Mitchell, and they adopted Lily from Vietnam. Finally, Jay’s daughter Claire is married to her heterosexual partner named Phil and they have three children. The show is influential to our culture today because it shows these different types of families and addresses controversial themes such as gay adoption, the different family connections and communications, intergenerational coupling, and acceptance of diversity within an extended family. The family is easy to relate to while watching because it is based off of real family situations.
After reading about the family transition and change, it hit me that these families that are going through a divorce need to put their children first, and what it is going to be like when they have to adjust to a new lifestyle where their parents are not together anymore. “The central assumption is that divorce is a crisis of family transition which causes structural changes in family systems” (Ahrons, pg. 533). Transitioning is going to be a hard time for these children because their whole life is changing, and it puts a strain on the family because of all the stress. It is so sad that “Our culture presently provides largely negative role models for the divorcing family” (pg. 534). However, the most important thing to do is to keep a positive
What is a family? A family is two or more people consider themselves to be blood related, or related by marriage, or adoption. Our families are who we love. We as families look different in so many ways. A family’s caregiving unit might have a couple, a mother, a father, and children. A family could also be a single parent and child, a group of siblings, a small or large group of friends. A family defines itself in many different ways. Families are the foundation of how our society and how it works. It is how we come into the world and nurtured and given the tools that we need to go out into our world. We are both capable and healthy or not our families influence our lives either in a good way or a bad way. While families
Population information gathered by the U.S. Census bureau provides statistical data illustrating the changing nature of the American family. Though many contemporary families fall into the traditional two parent and child household, census data shows that other categories of families are increasing. Single and unmarried parents, blended, extended, childless couples, same-sex, and individual family units are all increasing. For example, 1960 census data shows that about 9% of children lived in a single parent home....
A divorce is defined as “a judicial declaration dissolving a marriage in whole or part, especially on that releases the marriage partners from all matrimonial obligations” as stated by www.dictionary.com/browse/divorce. In current society divorces has been a well-known phenomenon and is quite common t everyone. Couples are getting divorced die to many reasons. Some of them are, but not limited to other love affairs, loss of romantic feelings, infidelity, getting married to young or even conflicts in the home between the two spouses. It is a heavy concept that impacts child(ren) and family one way or the other, both advantageous and negatively.