Different Views of Family Relationships
There appears to be more children that are being raised in a single parent household now than it has been in the last 30 years or so. There has also been a change in what a traditional family looks like. More recently same sex couples have been in a position to adopt or even raise their existing children together. We can even find household where children are being raised by their grandparents. The ideas of a nuclear family are not as popular today. It seems like they are almost phased out. Years ago, it was ideal for the father to work and the mother would stay home to raise the children, cook, and clean the house. However, today, both parents (or one depending on the situation) are working, fewer dinners are being made, and cleaning is a chore done by everyone. Families are relationships in which people live together with commitment, form an economic unit and care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group. Sexual expression and parent–child relationships are a part of most, but not all, family relationships (Kendall, 2013). Whereas marriage, a union that is legally bonded between two people. This union usually last until one partner dies or one files for divorce.
Over the years the views of relationships have changed. We now have inter-racial couples, same sex couples, and your traditional (male/female) couples. We have become more acceptable with regard to how people love and whom people love. This is a personal choice and not a reflection of what society deems as acceptable. Besides, who are we to decided who someone should love. Moreover, (Powell, 2010) argued that support for same-sex marriage is related to more inclusive definitions of family. Diverse families are both positive and negative. A person should be in a position to love who they love without restriction. Considering if we all were to live our lives by what society deemed as acceptable, we would all end up miserable. Loves comes in many forms and it shouldn’t be reliant on you being with your own race, your own class, or the opposite sex. Love is love. However, I do have some reservations with reference to relationship that are of the same sex or interracial. I would hope that a family that consist of different races would teach their children equally about both heritages. I’ve seen families that are of a mixed race only cater to one side and that is a disadvantage to the child when he or she ages.
You should be in a position to relate to both or all of your parents’ origins. The rapid increase in support for same-sex marriage in the United States today must be interpreted in light of changes in the deep structures of American culture, which cause Americans to imagine homosexuality differently than they did three decades ago (Hart-Brinson, P.,2016). I would hope that a child has to ability to choose their sexual orientation and not on the basis of which they grew up in. I’ve always wondered if a child, let’s say it was a boy and his parents are both male as well; would that child grow up more attracted to men than women. I do not know of any same sex families personally but is has always been a forethought of mine.
Family Affects a Child in a Psychological Way
You always hear about how important a mother is needed to raise a child for nurturing needs. As we know in a male same sex marriage this would be absent, do this affect a child in a psychological way? Or, what a about a child that needs a father, does this have any bearing on their lives as well? I’ve always asked myself these questions. Being raised by my grandparents I did not know my father and my mother was around, but we did not and still don’t have that mother daughter relationship that we would’ve had if I was raised by her. I can tell you that being 39 years old this has had an effect on me. I parent my children better because of this very reason. You really do miss what you never had, and it does have a silent effect on you growing up. I prided myself in doing better and being better for my children and as a member of society.
So, in retrospect there appears to be some positives and some negatives that come out of being in a diverse family. If we were to go back in time 50 years and divert back to the family structure and norms it would be a major setback. Women were seen only as wives and mothers. They were considered homemakers and if they did work it would most likely be in education, nursing, and as secretaries. Women have made some major advances over the years. They have taken over the workforce and became major leaders in society with political positions that allow them to make changes to how we are governed in the US. The diversity in the families today would be nonexistent or shunned upon. Same sex marriages wouldn’t be legal nor acceptable. Interracial marriage or relationships would cause racial uproar. We have made major advancement economically and socially as time went on. The views of what a family constitute are steadily changing and because of that we will continue to evolve.
