Times Have Changed

Today we have several type of families. We have single parent families, we have same sex marriage families. We have step parent families, and we have families where the grandparents are raising the children. We also have traditional the traditional family where the mom and dad are married to each other and raising their children. The world has changed so much through out the years and there will always be debate about what is acceptable. I don't really believe I am one to judge on what family is acceptable and what family is not. There is one undeniable fact, family life is not what it used to be. Have they changed for the better, that is up for each person to decide I think.

So we all remember the pictures and advertisements of the 1950's right. You know where the mom always has a dress on and her make up and hair are always perfect even when she is doing house work. When the pictures shows the family together everyone had a big grin on there face. The dad had at least one kid on his lap, they all looked like one big happy family. If you really look at those photos, don't you think they are kind of creepy. Well I do, after all that was that era's stereotype idea of what it meant to be a family, and to be a mother. I think that some of the ideas from back then are good. But that is just what some of them where, they where just ideas. Now back 50 or 60 years ago, it is true the women's role mainly was to care for the family and take care of the house. It was typically the man's role to go out and work and support the family. And that seemed to work well for that time, I mean family life for the most part seemed to function all right. Things where more safe and easy back then. I don't really think women stayed home doing house work in their high heels, but they did take care of the children.

I do think that there was a stronger since of morals and commitment when it came to just about everything back then. So when did everything start to change? There are many people who say the start of the change in our families began when women started working more and spending less time at home. Don't get me wrong, I am a woman, I believe that every women should have every opportunity to be just as successful in the work place as any man. Of course I do not believe that the total cause of the down ward spiral of our society is because women now work. I do believe that children get a lot less parenting than they used to back in the day. I believe that is one of the reasons society and our families have changed so much. As the years went on divorce became more and more common and accepted. The fact is back in the 1940 and 1950's divorce was something looked down upon. Once people got married they generally stayed that way for life. It was only in extreme cases divorce was even acceptable. Today divorce happens every day.

I do believe that divorce is a major cause for the change in family life today. As divorce became more acceptable, there started to be more and more single parent families. Children started lacking a father figure in there life . As divorce became more acceptable, so did remarriage and our society started seeing more and more extended families, including the step parent. We all know that the role of a step parent can be difficult. There you have a person joining the family, trying to take the role of dad or mom. But they don't really have rights to that role. This can cause resentments and anger for the children and parents both. It can also lead to a lot of disfunction in the family if the role of the step parent is not made clear.

Of course as the divorce became more of a common thing so did single parent families. It became common that at least one of the parents where not active in the children's life. And it became more common that children had 2 different set of rules with different homes. As time went on we saw the break down of the family more and more, and we often noticed the change in morals in our society as well. With the introduction of legalized gay marriage. That added another type of family to as well. Same sex couples began marring and raising families just like traditional families. I say blessed should be every marriage and if that is the way people want to live there life, far be it from me to stop them. There is not really even a need to bring up the fact that this was unheard of in the 50's. It just shows how much things have changed over the years.

No matter what kind of family you have the main ingredient you need is love. As long as you have that a family can work through anything. So for many reasons the days of June Cleaver are far behind us. Even so, I don't see any reason why we can not bring up happy and healthy adults.