Broken Family : The Aspects Of An All-American Family

Poverty. Unemployment. Potential foreclosure. Words all too familiar to Americans everywhere. The PBS Frontline documentary, Two American Families, is the heartbreaking, yet hopeful look at the struggles of two Milwaukee families, the Neumanns and the Stanleys, over roughly two decades, 1991 to 2012. While ideally the concept of meritocracy would indicate the efforts of these hard working families should influence their social standing, the reality of social stratification remains, with their wealth, power, and prestige, or lack thereof, used to cement their place, and primarily that of their children, in society.

Frontline’s special of Two American Families contrasts families trying to secure a foothold in the middle class America during a time of struggle in the city of Milwaukee. Indeed, the special is about the financial strain on the middle class of America, but what is clear is the difference a mindset and communication can make for a family during a challenge. If a family chooses to stay positive, stick together and communicate well, their chances of making it through is much stronger than those who become negative and fail to clearly communicate their goals. For example, Tony Newman lost his job as his employer downsized. This brought incredible financial strain upon his family as he was unable to find new employment. Therefore, his wife got a job to provide for the family. What was

My family is from Mexico, a place where there is no prospect, and they have given up their most important wishes for mine. Being a Hispanic doesn’t make me feel inferior, but it makes me diligent. I have observed the way my parents worked throughout their years. The way they managed to survive and pleasure us, my brother and I, with our wants or needs. It is important to love who I am, my heritage and background, because it is not about how much money I have in my wallet but it is about the lesson or motivation I cultivated. The most amazing part about my heritage is knowing how strongly and intensely we believe in ourselves. When we set a belief, it is rare for someone to destroy the significance of it so easily. We have strong morals and that is what makes my background/heritage so important to me. We never give up.

This essay, The Myth of the Model American Family, is a discussion of the concept of an ideal family in the different perspective specifically social, cultural and economic. This is also an attempt to identify the structural changes in relation to the global development and the international economic crisis that immensely created impact on their lives. However, the discussion will limit itself on the different identifiable and observable transformations as manifested in the lifestyles, interrelationships and views of family members and will not seek to provide an assessment of their psycho-social and individual perceptions.

Stephanie Coontz in “The Way We Weren’t: The Myth and Reality of the Traditional Family” emphasizes that the traditional and ideal nuclear family widespread in media and textbooks are false and far from reality. In fact, it is common to see more similarities to the traditional family consistent of “male breadwinner and nurturing mother” (1) today than in the past.

There’s an old saying that goes, “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present”, by Alice Morse Earle. The world has become a place taken for granted. Humans are beginning to wish they could live in the past, while others just want to skip over to the future but what ever happened to living right now? Or living in the moment? In the story, “The American Family”, by Stephanie Coontz, she discusses why so many individuals believe American families are facing worse issues now than in the past. She discusses how in the previous years, it was far worse and explains why those people are wrong to assume they are facing worse problems now. In addition, Robert Kuttner and his text, “The politics of family”, supports Coontz’ argument about the dilemmas facing the turn-of-the-century American families and gives the resolutions to those problems; such as talking out problems, women having the right to walk out of unsatisfactory marriages, and lastly, the emancipation for women.

The traditional American family comes from the 1950s, when TV shows like Leave It to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet were released. They were the model to follow and create the family that the myth promotes. Parents happily married, nice house in suburbia, and a harmonious home are common traits of the model American Family. The myth of the American family creates a template for other families to follow; however, it only reflects to Caucasian families and creates a disappointment on today’s society.

The Brady Bunch were the ideal families in the 1960's and 1970's, and in the 80's, it was Family Ties. When the 1990's approached us, television shows took on a whole new outlook on American Families. There were shows such as Full House, which was about a single father raising three daughters with the help of his brother-in-law and his best friend. Roseanne was also another show that showed the "dysfunctional" side of families. American Families keep changing, and they will continue to change in our future.

The families in America are steadily changing. While they remain our most valued and consistent source of strength and comfort, some families are becoming increasingly unstructured. In the past, the typical family consists of a working father, a stay at home mother and, of course, well-rounded children. Today, less than 20 percent of American families fit nicely into this cookie cutter image. American households have never been more diverse. Natalie Angier takes stock of the changing definition of family in an article for the New York Times.

Moreover, in our interview, she described what her article The Normal American Family was about, and stated that, while conducting her researches, she became interested in the internalized racial oppression within families. This internalized racial oppression within families later became based on the “white middle-class family”, to which I like to refer to as the “modern American family ideology”. The white-class family was the ideology that would be seen on television shows such as The Brady Bunch, as mentioned by Professor Pyke. She addressed the television show, The Brady Bunch, as one of the white-middle class families that many second generation Asian American immigrant students would compare to their families, and question why not being the same. Korean and Vietnamese second generation children seem to have built an ideal American family based on what they see on television or other American family, and that is why they have created certain ideals and characteristics that their families should meet. “Many of the image of normal family life that respondents brought to their description came in the form of references to television families or the families of non-Asian friends” (Pyke, 247). Professor Pyke mentioned that students would see these white middle-class families, and ask themselves why their families could not be the same. Or question why their parents could not be affectionate, just like their friend’s parents. The truth is that their parents could not be

n the upcoming page’s I will answer the following questions. Why is family the most important agent of socialization? What caused the dramatic changes to the American family? What are the changes? I will discuss the differences in marriage and family, I will discuss how they are linked to class, race, gender, and personal choices. The purpose of this study is to explore the many different family functions and the paths that people are now choosing. I will give my opinion on whether these changes have had a positive or negative affect. I will finally discuss the trend of the modern family, back to pre-World War II family structure, how would that effect the strides that have been made in the progression of women rights.

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.

I never really knew my father when I was growing up. I was raised by my mother and my little brother's side of the family. My own family was across the ocean in California. By the time I was nine I

Modern Family is a sitcom that first aired in 2009 that focuses on many prevalent issues including cultural differences in families. The US was a nation founded upon immigration and now embraces the term as “melting pot” (National Review). The Pew Research Center reports that currently about ten percent of children are mixed race (VOA News). Many children have the influence of two or more cultures within their families. Yet the influence of culture can extend in the environment as well. Growing up with Chinese parents but living in America I can feel the impact of both cultures and I am appreciative of both. There are moments in Modern Family where we can see both the “melting pot” of the Delgado-Pritchett marriage and the tension caused by the different cultures, and I find there are reasons why the sitcom portrays both perspectives.

The ideal American family was transformed in the 19th century in large part due to the great changes taking place in the American society. Many family groups fit this changing mold while some did not. In this essay I will show how this concept of the ideal American family changed. I will also try to explain which groups of Americans followed this concept and why.