The Ever-Changing Structure Of The Family Unit In The Unites Stated

There are many ways that the idea of the “traditional” family has changed over the past several centuries. For instance prior to the 19th century family was often considered anyone who lived within a household whether related by blood or not. This included employees and extended family. Per Coontz (2010) “The biological family was less sacrosanct, and less sentimentalized, than it would become in the nineteenth century.”(p. 35) In society at the time it was socially unacceptable to be separate or not included as part of a family household. Over time, the term family came to encompass the immediate family, a husband, wife and their children. During the late 1800’s through the mid 1900’s there were emerging ideas of family that were not widely accepted as traditional or normal, these included single parent homes with only a Mom or Dad, Stepfamilies and same sex couple and parent households. Today, American ideas of what constitutes a family have drastically expanded to include these formerly “non-traditional” families

Identify and investigate these contemporary issues relating to family law and evaluate the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses to these issues

A family helps mold each person into who they eventually will become. The family is a guide for the success of a child's future. The stability of family creates a building block for how the child will progress throughout life. When parents divorce, the children are left with no stability causing them to lose basic concepts of childhood that may carry with them throughout life. Children of divorced parents have less success and happiness creating less productive citizens in our nation.

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.

Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarksian have shed new light on the subject of minority families and their differences to the traditional nuclear families in their essay, “The Color of Family Ties.” According to their work, those of White descent make up most of all nuclear families which can be described as a father, mother and children all living in one household. Gerstel and Sarkasian point out that it is not always the case that, “Black and Latino/a, especially Puerto Rican families are more disorganized than White families, and that their families ties are weaker,” as they are often thought of by those in politics or the media (62). In fact Gerstel and Sarkasian write, “Blacks and Latinos/as, are as likely as

There is no statute, formula or template which the courts would rely upon to decide cases related to children visitation. The relationships between parties, such as non-custodian parent, de factor parent, same sex partner, grandparents, aunt and uncle and the children subject to visitation dispute are complex. During the last several decades, the phrase “best interest of the child” has evolved. Many states have a set of criteria to define the “best interest of the child;” however, the State of Massachusetts is among a few states which reserves the trial judges with judicial authority and discretion to decide based on the material facts and evidence presented at trial.

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.

The idea of family diversity suggests that there is no dominate type of family, therefore none can be considered as the norm. However there are studies to suggest that in historical periods of Britain like when it was industrializing there is dominating types, in this period it was considered to be the nuclear family.

This paper will discuss the differences between families from the 1960’s and the families of today. There are many differences between the different times. I have focused on the parentage portion of the families. I explained what the ideal family is and how it is different today. I’ve also included ways that will help these families of today become stronger as a family.

The Decline of Traditional Family Being Detrimental to Society Some people believe that the decline of the traditional family (Nuclear family) is detrimental to society because a lot of people are not socialising. This is one of the basic roles that a traditional family performs for individuals to meet the expectations of society. Only through a family can a person play a full part in society.

In a sociological perspective, family is interpreted as a social group whose members are bound by legal, biological, or emotional ties or a combination of all three. The sociological theories the connect to this concept are functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionalism. First, functionalism states that the family socializes children, it provides emotional and practical support for its members, and it provides its members with a social identity. Secondly, conflict theory states that members create disagreements, and create emotional support and comfort. Finally, symbolic interactionism claims family members and intimate couples interact on a daily basis. "Families are defined as a relationship by blood, marriage, or affection" (Seccombe 5).

Gender roles, the public image of being a particular gender that a person presents to others (gender roles, n.d.), have seen many changes through the years, especially in families. The changes can be seen in many aspects, including television shows, from the traditional family in the I Love Lucy sitcom of the 1950s to the plethora of shows about women and men who balance working and family life of the 2000s. A traditional family can be defined as “… the ‘natural reproductive unit’ of mom, pop, and the children all living under one roof… (Ball, 2002).” The 1940s, a period dominated by this type of family, were primarily a time of single-income families where the father was the ‘breadwinner’ and the mother the ‘homemaker (Hayghe, H.V., 1990).’

Traditional families versus single parent families. A traditional family household is a household with two parents, mother and father. A single parent family household is a one parent household a mother, or father. This household is usually occurs when a parent dies, parents divorce, or the parents was never married and separated after having a child together. The question at hand is would a child be more successful and mentally stable in life growing up in a traditional family household, or single parenting household? This has been an intriguing argument for many years. I strongly believe a child in a single parent home could grow up to be just as emotionally stable and also be just as successful as a child who grows up with both parents.

There are varieties of families in the world. People develop different personalities and mind sets because they have their own experience and knowledge gain from their individual families. In this essay, I will contrast and summarize each of nuclear, which is traditional, family and non-traditional families and also compare each of the families and examine how changing in non-traditional and nuclear families will affect people’s behaviors and minds in the view of sociologist and psychologist in order to argue how changing family affect individuals and the society.

The family structure determines where you derive from and provides a sense of who you are. The typical family structure is perceived as a father and a mother, two children, one boy and one girl, and a pet. The typical family description described above is still promoted and expected to be the “dream family.” Author Meyerhoff, “While the nuclear family with Dad, Mom, and offspring happily coexisting beneath one roof-remains the ideal, variations in family structure are plentiful and often successful” (Meyerhoff). Meaning that a lot of families are remarried spouses with prior children and more common in the last decade same sex marriages. So, do these nontraditional families have the same qualities? Personally, I would think so. After