The nuclear family is a married man and women who are raising their biological children. It is better known as the common view of a household. In the 1960’s this family, and religious, view was followed by the majority of the people in the United States that if one had to guess they type of family one live with there would be an eighty percent chance that they live in a nuclear family (Luscombe). This image of a family has been engraved into our brains that anything else is unacceptable. However, over the years that view has been altered by single divorce, single parenting, cohabitation, children born out of wedlock, and gay parenting. In fact, the U.S. has seen drastic rise different types of families over the last fifty years (Castelloe). …show more content…
From the religious view it is unacceptable because “god meant for one man and one woman to be marry and later conceive and raise a child, not for the same sex to get together and raise a child”. The estimates of children that live with gay parents are about two million (Angier). Due to such a high rate of gay parenting, people are begging to refer to it as the “gay baby boom”. If not for those reasons, then because the couple will be portrayed as unfit to race a child because deprives them of conventional adult role models (Angier); a motherly and fatherly role model. As well as saying that same sex parenting will eventually lead to the children to come across some difficult situations. One of them being that other kids will bully them for having two moms or two dads. Some people have gone as far as saying that the parents are setting the kids up make the same “life choices” as they did, or any other form of social prejudice. There was analysis conducted by Michael J. Rosenfeld of Stanford University that has proven that “that children who lived with gay parents were prone to lower grades, conduct disorders and a heightened risk of drug and alcohol problem” (Angier) is a false statement. On the contrary to those beliefs “the children of same-sex parents are academically and emotionally indistinguishable from those of heterosexual parents.”
“In the 1950’s, 86 percent of children lived in two-parent families, and 60 percent of children were born into homes with a male breadwinner and a female homemaker” (Conley 451). In contrast, “in 1986, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. families consisted of a male breadwinner, a female housewife, and their children, a figure that has since fallen to 6 percent” (Conley 455). Modern families come in all shapes and sizes. They no longer follow the strict nuclear family layout. There are many reasons why the nuclear family is no longer the most common family type. Some of these reasons include increased divorces, increased acceptance of different sexual orientations, increased amount of couples choosing not to get married/common-law marriages, increased amount of people choosing not to have children (rise of birth control methods), increased amount of families with both parents working/needing to work, etc. Personally, I do not believe the decrease in the nuclear family model is a bad thing. By definition a family is just a group of people who are related or married/in a relationship and it can still be a healthy and well-functioning unit no matter the size or combination of people it is made up
The nuclear family. The idea of a completely perfect family consisting of a man, a woman, a girl and a boy. This idea was most popular in the 1950's to the 196...
Over the past decades, the patterns of family structure have changed dramatically in the United States. The typical nuclear family, two married parents with children living together in one household, is no longer the structure of the majority of the families today. The percentage of single-parent families, step-families and adopted families has increased significantly over the years. The nuclear family is a thing of the past. Family situations have tremendous influence upon a child’s academic achievement, behavior and social growth.
The word family in the 21st Century has a much different meaning no than it did even 20 or 30 years ago. While the image of a family in the past was that of a nuclear family: a father, mother , children and maybe a pet or two, this image has dramatically changed in a variety of ways. Your view may vary somewhat depending on your cultural practices, for instance it is common in the Hispanic and some Asian cultures to have three generations in one home. These families choose to care for their aging parents rather than to move them into an assisted living or skilled nursing facility. However, all of humankind has a similar view of what a family system is and what its functions should be.
" The Apple doesn 't fall far from the tree". " Because your parents are gay, doesn 't that make you the same way?" These are things that many kids hear. You are expected to turn out to be like your parents. You are stereotyped the moment you are born. However, when you are the child of same-sex parents you not only get labeled as a homosexual, but you also get all the stigma that any adult homosexual may receive. LGBT parents are just as eligible to be parents as heterosexual couples and despite the long standing stereotype, the children of same sex couples should not be stuck under the same stereotype as their adult counterparts, and the sexuality of a couple should not validate societies need to assume the sexuality of their child.
This is due to the fact there are many different inputs on same-sex couples raising children. California and some countries in the United States who disagreed with legalizing same-sex marriage, went forward with trying to amend the state constitution and exclude same-sex couples from adopting children. There are many augments on why same-sex couples should not be able to raise children. According to Crytstal Lombardo (2015), there are pros and cons to same-sex couples raising families. Some of the cons of gay parenting are “Children do not grow in an environment not having well-balanced adults. There are people saying that children should have role models from both sexes”. Although this is a commonly used argument, there has been many researches done to prove otherwise. According to April Martin, a Clinical Psychologist (1998), a child raised by a homosexual parents shows no characteristics that differ from children raised by heterosexual parents. Not only is that the case, if the child is living with one parent who is not open about his or her
The nuclear family, or traditional family, is something that every family wants, because it’s supposed to be the “perfect” family. The father’s role is providing for the family as well as protecting it, while at the same time being the family’s disciplinary role model. The woman’s role within the traditional nuclear family consists of keeping a clean home and motherhood. The mother and father always work out their problems for the sake of their marriage and children. This translates into future success by teaching their children how to seek out positive relationships and interact well with others. Children can also benefit from watching their parents work together to solve problems, delegate household responsibilities and support one another through positive and negative issues. When there is two parent, working class family it means having enough economic stability to provide children with luxuries and opportunities in life. Children may be able to participate in dance, gymnastics, sports, music, art or other types of extracurricular activities and hobbies they may want to explore. Children that are provided with these types of opportunities are more likely do better academically and sociall...
Family has played a big role in stabilising society after the Second World War. In the 1950s, it marked the beginning of the ‘Family of the Golden Age’ where the nuclear family are viewed as the main ideal household (Hughes and Fergusson, 2004, p.47). It is defined as a social unit consisting of wife, husband and dependent children (ibid). Sociologist often views such family as ‘The cereal packet family’ which refers to the image most people hold of the family during the golden age (Nelson, 2013). However, in the beginning of the 1960s onwards, the UK society is becoming more liberal with greater emphasis on equality and personal freedom (Morgan, 2013). This is where the diversity of family types and relationships within families starts to take place. Nowadays, people start to express their concern over what’s happening to the ‘traditional family’ in the contemporary UK society (Hughes and Fergusson, 2004, p.46). Furthermore, there is a widespread fear that changes in family lives are leading to greater uncertainties and private troubles in people’s lives. (Mooney et al, 2004 cited in Hughes and Fergusson, 2004, p.46). However, for feminists, the increasing diversity of the family is viewed as a good thing since it enables more equality and liberated relations between men, women and children (ibid, p.64). On the other hand, to conservative’s thinkers the increasing diversity is changing and undermining the secure and hierarchical order which the family makes for the wider society (ibid, p.61). Therefore, this essay will demonstrate family as an example of continuity change with an explanation on the changes of household types. In addition, social scientists’ views on diversity in the family will be discussed with the focus on the ...
...hild. Same sex marriage is not accepted throughout society, there will be parents who don't believe in that and will not allow their children to hang out with your children, which will lead to hurt and confusion for your children. Other children will be wondering and asking your children why you have two dads or two moms. Children are very impressionable, so of course if a child has same sex parents it is going to have a big influence on them. It is known that any trauma that happens in childhood can psychologically affect a person in their future. I respect homosexual couples and I do not judge, but I think all children should have a mother and a father. I know there are a lot of children in need of a good home and that is the only reason why this could be a good idea, but just throwing a child in any family isn’t right either, the child needs a stable family.
In the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, sociology of the family was dominated by the structural functionalist perspective, which treated the family as a universal feature, built around a biological basis surrounding kin relations (McLennan et al, 2010). Dominated by sociologists such as Goode (1963), Parsons and Murdock, this approach saw the nuclear family as the most suitable ideal surrounding family. The nuclear family
The concept of the family is not a new one. It dates back at least as far as the Hammurabi Code, when family members could be sold to pay off debt. The way families are viewed by society is constantly in flux. The purpose of a family, however, as a group of people who support, love, care, nourish and educate one and other has remained constant for many generations now. The “acceptable” or expected makeup of such families is also something which has changed. In the fifties, the nuclear family created a model that many still dream of. A dutiful wife, her hard-working husband and their bright, well-behaved children living in a suburban home off one income was the dream. The parents would likely have been of the same race and religion, definitely
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
New Right thinkers also see the Nuclear family unit as the ‘normal family’. John Redwood a conservative mp stated in 1993 that the two adult family caring for their children was the ‘natural state’, these perspectives reflect the sociobiological view that the family is a natural institution based on biological requirements.
As David Popenoe, the author of “American Family Decline, 1960-1990: A Review and Appraisal” states, “.the term decline is important because it provides a ‘best fit’ for many of the changes that have taken place. These changes.clearly indicate that the family as an institution has weakened” (Popenoe 1993:536). Popenoe is arguing that changes in society are leading to the decline of the once dominant family type. The definition of the American nuclear family will not change because it has been a set term for many years.
The extended family predominated pre-industrially because of the need for a large family to help tend the land or look after those who were unable to do so. Infant mortality was high so you had to produce more children to be sure of having enough help. The family were a unit of production producing only the goods needed to survive and trading the remainder. Following the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, it was replaced by the nuclear family which was a unit of consumption as family members became wage earners and families needed to become more geographically mobile and move to where they could find work.