Single Parent Families Essay

All families have different dynamics whether it is the gender rolls or the type of family you have. What may be considered a normal family today, was once unheard of or uncommon. Traditionally most families were considered nuclear, however over time nuclear families have slowly decreases resulting in single parent families and blended families being the norm. People may strive to have a traditional nuclear family, but due to the changes in society is has been proven to be more difficult than ever to keep a family together. A nuclear family is a family with married parents and their children, someone people would call a family like this “The Jones”, I perfect white picket fence family. A nuclear family 50 years ago was the most common family

Single parent families are more common than not in America today, four out of ten births occur by unmarried women. (“Parenting in American” 1). Being a single parent comes with many challenges to face due to one parent playing all the roles. However, there are quite a few positive aspects to being a single parent. Freedom is a great advantage of being a single parent, there no arguments with your spouse about how to parent your child. There is also an increased amount of bonding time with your child, a single parent has more time and energy to spend with their child, because they do not need to divide up their time with a spouse and children. There is a lack of fighting between parents in single family homes, which is a great advantage of single family homes. Arguing parents strain family relationships and develops a toxic environment. "The large increase can be accounted for by the high divorce rate in America. To a lesser but growing extent, the greater social acceptance of the unmarried mother who keeps her child has also contributed to the growing number of single-parent families.” (Cox and Demmitt

A blended family is a husband and wife, at least one of whom has been married before, and one or more children from previous marriages. 16% of children are living in a blended family. Since the 1990’s the data related to blended families has been about the same. (Pew Research Center, 2015) Although a remarried family is considered a blended family, the actual blending of two families does not go smoothly. There are many compromises the family must make as the children adapt to a new family. When it comes to the roles of family members within a blended family, they may be similar to a nuclear family. In a blended family there are two parental figures, followed by children. The only difference between a nuclear and blended family are the biological factors. A blended family will face many challenges, such as acceptance. It is often hard for children to accept their step parents. The children were use to having both of their parents or may they were use to having it be just them and one parent, so the adjustment to have another parent can be very hard. However, they may adjust to having a new parents just fine. Lets say you have a single mom, and you have never known your dad, but your mom meets a guy and they fall in love resulting in marriage. Now you have the positive male role model you have always yearned to have. In America’s society a blended family