America's Relationship With Both Parents

The one topic that I found the most interesting was Wegscheider-Cruse’s and Blacks family roles. I really enjoyed this section because it got me thinking about which role I best fit and all of the various ways that my family members and I adapted to the substance abuse issues that occurred in our household. After lots of thought, I came to conclusion that I took on the role as the hero/responsible child. I always did really well in school and in the sports that I played. I always felt bad about for my family and what everyone had to go through and sacrifice so I found myself trying to succeed and bring a more positive light into the family. I never wanted to cause any issues with anyone or be difficult because I never wanted to add to all of the stress. Growing up I was by far, more responsible than my older brother. Although the oldest child normally takes on the role of the hero, this role fit me best. I would like to think that I have really good organization skills and have set reasonable goals throughout life that I have been able to achieve. It was very clear to me that I could not rely on my father growing up because of his substance abuse issues. This pushed me to be very independent knowing that my mother already had a lot on her plate.

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

American government plays a huge part in family life; therefore, I agree that they should be involved in family life. There are many government assistance programs such as The Housing and Urban Development organization (HUD) that helps low income families with paying their rent. For college students, although financial aid can be complicated and a creation of plenty of debt, it consists of grants, loans, scholarships, or any other funding by the government made to aid college students in meeting their college expenses. I am personally a college student who depends on financial aid to get me through college so it has become very helpful to me especially any grants. There are also free or low income medical clinics that will provide free or low

Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different

I recently attended your talk in Boston and, while I was interested in much of what you had to say, I do have some notable points of disagreement. In your paper, which you co-wrote with Robert Bales (who was nowhere to be found at the talk) in 1955, you argue that the family is at a point of stability in the 1950s that you say will last. In doing so, you credit what you deem to be the new structure of family: with specific roles including a male breadwinner, along with a wife who stays at home and cares for the children. This claim, however, is questionable. By looking at the demographic composition of different familial combinations, one can see

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.

I do not believe the American family is in trouble today; the world around us is forever evolving and changing. These changes have help create a better, stronger and diverse American family structure. For example, women are no longer forced to fit the traditional gender role which made them economically dependent on their husbands/partners for financial support. This traditional gender role allowed men to have an uneven amount of power in the marriage/relationship. Furthermore, creating an environment in which women were force, because of economic reasons to stay in marriages that were both physical and emotionally violented. However, as gender roles have changed, women are now able to work jobs that provide financial independence which has helped to narrow the power gap between women and their husbands/partners in marriages/relationships. Thus, giving women a voice and options to leave abusive marriages/relationships, in essence strengthening the family structure. Nevertheless, some will say that divorce weakens the family structure, but raising children in an abusive

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.

To add to this discussion I feel that kinship is still important in America but it just comes in a different form. Like discussed by the other kinship is a group made out of your blood relatives and also people that were married in, they formed to build social relationship that help them in life. America has a culture where everyone is very individualistic and only cares about their inner circular of family and friends. They form like this and the close friends and family become a little kinship of people. They way that it differ is that kinship wanted to go and interact and gain more alliance. But today it seem that American like to stay in the "kinship" and not really adventure out of it. Why people do want allies in America they trust the

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.

Do you think or believe American society provides too much or too little quality education on the role of parenting and how that shapes our children and generations to come?

Though most people would believe that the majority of families in the United States are nuclear families, because that is what is considered to be normal, that is untrue. The majority of families in the U.S. deviate from nuclear households. My family is no different. My family has not been considered nuclear for several years now. My family constists of my mother, stepfather, my older stepbrother, me, my younger stepbrother, and my younger biological brother. As for extended family, I still have all four of my grandparents, one great grandmother, three aunts, three uncles, and several cousins. Each of these people all still play a role in my life, and I am very close to them.

Third, in a number of ways sexual obligation has changed in the modern American family. Women are working presently more than at any time previously. This much is true, however at the poverty and middle class level, men and women salaries in nearly all instances will be in all likelihood comparable to each other. Although, this is where the buck literately comes to a stop. The women that are striving to achieve exceptional goals. For instance, there are countless more women than men receiving degrees from college. Women graduating with degrees desire the higher paying positions and in nearly all cases they are receiving them. Although this may be true, women are not receiving salaries nearly as high their male counterparts. On the other

There have been times when it seemed that America was ready to acknowledge the reality of what we recognize as a traditional family has indeed changed, and make an attempt to merge traditional family values with our current family structure. The more recent agreement to battle single motherhood and its foundation in former family normalcy was a brief period of good will extended to all families regardless of the shape or size, then was quickly followed by a newer, bipartisan movement focused on the family structure that included divorced parent situations as well as single parenthood, and now gay marriage and same-sex homes. This new campaign for dual parent families gained support across the political spectrum to include Democrats, liberals