Essay On What Happened To Ward And June Cleaver

What Happened to Ward and June Cleaver?

Single parent homes, broken families, and divorce are rampant in today’s society. Marriage is no longer the revered union that it once was. Divorce is clearly on the rise since the days of yesteryear that depicted happy families in the favorable image of Ward and June Cleaver. Unlike the June Cleaver’s of days gone by, the women of today now busily juggle careers, family and household responsibilities, and play the role of “soccer mom” among many other things. Now that June is swept away with her many responsibilities, together with her earning capacity, reduces her need to rely on Ward ultimately making it easier, and more likely, that their children, Wally and Beaver will become the unfortunate products

Jennifer Daw, a therapist with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy quoted an article from USA Today wherein opponents argued that, “divorce regulations or restrictions would create messier divorces, not prevent them and tougher restrictions on divorce could endanger women in abusive marriages.” People were once required to negotiate in divorce. The “No Fault Divorce” has changed that and takes the grounds for negotiation away from the unwilling spouse. This, in all actuality, means the one leaving can take half the assets, even if guilty of adultery. Still, they believe that divorce is a natural liberty and a personal choice as a means to deal with unhappy or contentious marriages and family disharmony.

Conversely, this line of thinking denotes how selfish and egoistic our society has become. This system of “me first” mentality placing such high values on “individuality” and unrestricted liberties comes at a great cost. Our selfishness and need for this instant gratification should never take precedence over our obligations as parents to our children. So, rather than dealing with the broken families, perhaps we need to take a more active role in supporting the preventative measures. As the proverbial saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of

However, in this age of instant gratification, married people give up too easily when faced with life’s traumas, trials and tribulations, which in all actuality, are the ties that bind and build the long-lasting, forever kind of relationships that many of our ancestors had. Too often people rush into marriage and neglect the process of building the relationship and taking the time to communicate with each other, those areas of their lives that are most important, intimate, and crucial. With the breaking down of religious upbringing, and as moral values in our society decline, the trend of broken families, sadly, continues to increase. The decreasing influence of religion today has contributed to the weakening of the social influence associated with divorce making it more commonly accepted in our culture. Our children have little or no understanding of what marriage was intended to be, and they, ultimately and unfortunately, pay the highest price for our egoistic decisions. Jennifer Daw quoted from The National Center for Health Statistics that, “children living with single parents are more likely to be in fair or poor health.” Furthermore, Robert L. Plunkett, vice dean of the Southern California Institute of Law at the University of LaVerne School of Law, reports that “children from single-parent