A Summary of “Alternative Family Futures” Today you will notice that many family atmospheres are not composed of your “traditional two-parent family” (352). According to Frances K. Goldschneider and Linda J. Waite who wrote the article “Alternative Family Futures”, family situations are evolving from the “old family” system (353). There is a fluctuation of families in which the fathers and children now involve themselves with domestic duties, while the women of the family take interest in occupations outside of the family setting. One such change in the family system that has multiplied is the evolution of “childless couples” (353). These couples choose not to have children because they feel that they are not capble or do not want to take on the responsibilities that come with raising a child.
Blended Families: Making it work in the 21st Century When God spoke the world into existence, traditional family systems (father, mother, and children) were on His mind; however, because of different citumstances blended families are more common and with them come many challenges and strengths. However, with challenges comes solutions to help the blended family become a functional happy and healthy one. By definition a blended family is “separate families united through marriage or families in which one parent is not the biological parent of at least one child,” (Shaylee & Brownlee, (2007), 18). Because “step” refers to only the “parent-child relationship”, blended is used to describe and focus on the family as a new unit. Statistics show “2,100 mew blended families are formed EVERY DAY in America,” (Blended family research, (2013).
Not only do the kids have a stay at home mom, but they have a live-in nanny to help solve their problems. As seen in most families where there are former spouses, there are no problems with former spouses in The Brady Bunch, they aren’t even mentioned. The boys don’t have any grief for their birth mother and Carol’s ex husband is out of the picture. Another thing that is weird is that the kids immediately bond and respect their step parents. This rarely happens in real life.
As well as the women as the housewife and present for the children caring for them with emotional help. Postmodernists will disagree seeing the nuclear family as more dominant as Giddens states due to a transformation in society, people now have a ‘greater choice’ it enables them to live their life as they chose creating various types of families along the way that best suits their lifestyle and choices. A greater choice like contraception has allowed people to stay intimate without the pressure of marriage or children. However Chester and Weeks will say family diversity is not that important because they aspire to live in committed households and raise their children jointly. Functionalists according to Parsons, the nuclear family is suited to meeting the needs of modern society for a geographically and socially mobile workforce.
Family Assessment Casey Schuler Bemidji State University Family Description The family discussed in this paper is a blended family. Included is a stepfather (SK), age 50, a mother (LS), age 48, and three children (TS, MS, LS), whose ages are 26, 21 and 18 respectively. The mother is the biological parent of all three children from a previous marriage which ended in divorce from alcoholism in her spouse. The spouse and biological father (GS) has a distant relationship with the children and does not live close. The stepfather also has a child from a previous marriage who was adopted by his uncle and aunt.
Instead of allowing the tragedy of their living situation to cripple their family, the Miller’s rebuilt their home right on top of the debris of the last one. This time, though, the Miller’s didn’t build just another house; they built an extravagant, spacious, completely wheel-chair accessible home where their handicapped daughters never suffered from physical restrictions.
Decades ago, you needed to be married to show yourself as a respectable adult. I feel like today, marriage is optional; you can get most of your emotional and economic needs by living with a partner. But I do think marriage is very important to people as a symbol of having made it in life and part of having a successful personal life. Most young Americans still want to get married, but they do it only when all the other steps to adulthood are in place—when they have completed their education, when both themself and their partner have jobs, when they have saved up enough for a down payment on a house, or even have had children together, etc. Marriage is a big step and stage in people’s lives.
Many people agree that it is important for girls to have adult males to relay to and for boys to have adult females to relate to. Singles argue that this person does not necessarily have to be a parent; it could be a close friend or family member of the opposite gender. On the other hand, many adoption agencies and attorneys still perceive the married couple as the ideal alternative for the children they place. So sometimes the single man or woman drops to the end of the adoption line when it comes to priorities, depending on who the adoption controller is. However, this
We today don’t put as much value in our family togetherness because some families aren’t traditional. Many families are families with one parent mostly single mothers. This makes it hard because when it’s a single parent then they have to
The aged are dependants and therefore get financial comfort from their children who are working. If the aged people are left to lead their own life, it becomes a problem. Pension payments are sometimes not enough to cover bills, especially if heath is a problem. If the retirees live together with their children then life becomes a bit easier. It provides ‘support web’ which is very critical for the existence to many families.