Definition Of Family Essay

Furthermore, women must suffer for their right in the same time men are dominant in both households and society, therefore, the Golden Age described husband as ‘breadwinner’ of household and wife as ‘home maker’ (McRae,1999). Conservative thinkers have defined that “family is a place of offspring reproduction, protection of children’s safety, inculcation of proper values on children” (Hughes and Fergusson, 2004, p.60). Also, “hierarchy and stability” are the two significant components to preserve ... ... middle of paper ... ... family to lone parent families, cohabitation, same sex couples and teenage motherhood. However, regarding the issues the propensity to blame for family break-up connects to social, economic and personal attitude and behavior. Despite variety increases in the family, the ‘nuclear family’ has still remained steady as the role model of family and also the rising status of women, which emphasis gender equality in the household as well as in the workplace.

Society says the definition of family is changing. A “normal family” is no longer a married man and woman and their biological children all living with each other under one roof. I am going to explore the different types of people that make a family in out society today. The first category I will start with is consanguinity. These are the people who are biologically related to each other.

The US Census Bureau provides us with astonishing findings. In 2014 about 20.25 million children in the United States lived with one parent, approximately 17.4 million of them were mother only households. Do these single-parent homes not validate the group of individuals as a family? The bigger threat to the future of family, is the lack of responsible parents. Yes the dream might be to first marry, bear children, watch them grow and be one big happy family, but that is not what reality presents to us.

Throughout our course readings in Gender Studies, we see the ideas of continuity and change in regards to the American family unit. There were multiple factors that influenced the institution of the family unit, including the argument that marriage was seen as a contract of survival, the privatization of marriage, as well as the idea that traditional families never existed. “A Little Commonwealth” by John Demos is an article that discusses the old colonial family household compared to the modern day family unit. In colonial times, the Puritan colonial family life was very similar and different from typical family structures. To begin with, the household consisted of individuals who lived with their immediate family, due to the area in which the families lived in, as well as the modest architecture that allowed simply no room to house more family members.

Family is a precarious subject. Some people love their families, hate their families, or do not have one at all. In America, we have this ideal picture of what an American family should look like. A mom, a dad, two kids, and a dog. But, we have come to notice the family structure is ever changing and we should just throw the “ideal” picture of a family out of the window.

Determining family structure and dynamics as well as defining the family is a complex process. Personally, I come from a very traditional family. Much like the assumptions made by the students in the article Defining Family: Young Adults’ Perceptions of the Parent-Child Bond by Mellisa Holtzman (2008). This is what comes to mind when most people define family; a nuclear family, with married parents, and biological children. However, a family is a complex system and can take on many different forms.

The shows discourage teen pregnancy based on the complications and struggles the families go through and how hard it is to start a family at such a young age, but most importantly it influences teenagers to be safe and cautious. In 2009 16 and Pregnant had up to three million views a year (Sun). The statistics show that after the show first premiered that teenage birth rates dropped. After 2009 there was a 5.7% reduction in teenage pregnancy (“MTV’s ‘16 and Pregnant’”. The show gave teenagers a better perspective on people their own age having babies.

Coontz said “what 's new is not that women make half their families living but that for the first time they have substantial control over their own income, along with the social freedom to remain single or to leave an unsatisfactory marriage” (98). When women couldn’t work, they had no options but to stay with their husband for financial support. Working is a new way of freedom because they can choose to stay or leave their husband and make their own decisions. It’s not like women couldn’t work before, they could but they didn’t have too much social freedom like to get divorce or not have children. Their voice wasn’t as important as men.

I believe that living with extended family cause several problem to the family members, and children (Hewings & Thaine, 2012) and couples (Al Khoori, 2014) are the most members who feel discomfort and upset of live with. Living with extended family is not a good idea because you will lose your independence, freedom, and the relationship with your family will affected negatively. The extended family cannot create a fully independent generation, because usually the younger members treated with spoil, and other thing that the marriage life will lose it’s independence. As Al Omosh (2014) believes, the child should have a healthy environment from his first years. In Arabs society, Sometimes, if the father punished his son, he will go directly to his grandparents and he will get away with his mistake.

Through my own experiences, it has become increasingly clear to me that the problem with Latinas failing is due to environment in which they live. The problem is not the students, the problem is the social and parental pressures, stereotypes, and the profound influence these pressures have upon their ability to learn. Social pressures play a huge part in our everyday lives. We are puppets which are forced to do what society asks of us and limited by it’s standards. You have standards and expectations given to you by society before you are even born.