Student name: Professor name: Subject 19 September, 2012 The Changing Family Structures and Trends In Generations Introduction

A family is broadly considered as a fundamental social entity, which is a combination of people living together on various bonds. These bonds may include marriages, blood and adoption playing a role in the representation of a single household. In as sociological setting however, the family is ought to be the foundation in the making of a society in either socially or biologically. Owing to previous discussions there are several structures of families based on the nature of relationship that exists among the parents and the children. There is a patrifocal family which consists of a father and his child, and on the contrary a matrifocal family which is made up of a mother and her child. A Consanguineal family setting that is made up of the couple, child and other individuals mostly belonging to the family of the mother. However, there is the conjugal family which is normally considered amorphous (Cherlin.45). This family is made up one or more mothers and their children in addition to other people and one or more other spouses. In defining what a family is and how the family can be viewed as a gender factory and how notions of family have changed over time, we have to put more consideration on the parent child relationship. As much as these relationships vary owed to various cultural differences, the

outstanding and autonomous form is the nuclear family setting (Cherlin, 60). It is made up of a marital pair living together with their offspring while a joint family is an extension of the nuclear family. A joint family exists where the children bring their fiances to stay with them at their parents houses after marriage. The grandparents generation Being of the third generation, from my familys perspective there has been several changes in the ways of life in all the generations and even probably more to come. Two generations ago that is from my grandparents to that of my parents, an American family setting was made of a father, mother and several kids from two to four. My grandparents on my fathers side had four children; they stayed together for several years until they all grew to be mature adults and got employed. The four children they had were three boys and one girl now my auntie. Taking a glance at my grandparents age group, it is obvious that there was this trend of having a complete family set up where the man has to live together with his wife for the longest time possible. My grandparents lived on the outskirts of a big city where they had a home in a certain suburb. Tagging the obvious aspect of my grandfather being the breadwinner and my grandmother being the home maker, it was a well accepted societal family. At the earlier times of 1950s when my grandparents met and got married, the family settings were different as most of the families had to be in the farms (Messener, McKay & Sabo,80). Ownership of property was crucial as my grandfather had to ensure that there was a constant supply of milk to the markets. In the 1960s and 1970s extended family structures grew even larger with the slowly encroaching changes in lifestyles.

At their time of marriage, life expectancy and age were some of the factors that greatly controlled the household structures. This as a factor that greatly determined the number of children that the family could have. Late marriage for the ladies meant a restricted number of births per household whilst late marriage for men was not necessarily a bothering factor on the households fertility cycle. The ability of a family to sustain itself was also a factor that mainly contributed to the household structure coupled by the strength of the labor market (Isserman and Kazin,120). All being factors that shaped household composition, and consequently childhood experience, in important ways. The noticeable changes in the second generation. Having discussed the time period and the influencing factors towards the trends at that time and age period. The replicating effect turned evident on the next or rather following generation. From the grandparents the shift to the next generation of our parents. In this case scenario there has been a great shift in trends and behavior over time. The family in the rather old setting is slowly vanishing given time and hence the reflective effect on the society. Marriage problems became more significant in the second generation as compared to the previous. There was a problem with families arising from the prevailing economic situations (Isserman and Kazin,128). With both parents having education and the desire to get more income, the roles played by both parents had to change. Mothers had to work in order to supplement the familys income. By doing so a drift in self satisfaction occurred and hence the existence of incompatible personalities. The reasons as to why such changes have occurred are because of individual irresponsibility, negligible obligation to the family, and blatantly being egocentric. Countless

conventional politicians and high-ranking academics squabble that the family is deteriorating because most people put their own needs above family duties. This school of thought claims that many adults are reluctant to devote their psychological and financial resources in their children or that they throw in the towel on their relationship earlier when they encounter trouble. The changes in gender roles are as a result of softening of the strict roles played by both men and women. The mainly noteworthy change to me seems to be the responsibility of the female gender. During the earlier generation of our grandparents wives remained back to be home wives, mothers and homemakers. However, nowadays women are still mothers, but a minority stay home full time to take care of the house and children. They generally toil away from areas of residence and continue playing the of nannies. During the 1950s wives frequently did not have much work and turned to be disillusioned (Scott,84). Men's conventional roles have altered as well. Having working wives they are relieved from the task of being a solo in the supporting of the family, therefore fathers are gaining an emotional correlation with their children that was beforehand part of a mother's dominion. Even in conventional families like my own, gender roles were less rigid in the earlier generations than they are in the present. In modern day family, men normally play diverse roles. Many are the bread winners while others are not. In the previous generation sexual expression was intended to be constrained until engagement where sex before marriage was considered a taboo. A documented change in the second generation is evident by the nature of behavior. In my family, I could see pictures of members of my extended family of the second generation. Some being suggestive in a manner, where my fathers sister holding the boyfriend in a family picture. Even more, a cousin to my father who was apparently unwed yet having a baby. This is a clear indication that there was acceptance in the change of morals in the family and even the society.

The second generation in the 20th century introduced new household structures, consisting unwed parents, gay parents, and remarried parents who came with a sequence of tread-relations. Divorce, premarital pregnancy, and single parenthood lost some social stigma. Children in divorced families usually experience autonomy at a tender age (Swason, Edwards and Spencer). Making others develops tight relationships with more than one adult, and they develop attached affiliations with the separate individual parents. Nonetheless, the individual feeling of stability couldnt help instead dismember the larger family structure (Howe,170). Mixed families need significant emotional if not financial modification. Children with same-sex parents also visage compound social and emotional issues, including building viewpoint on sexual category roles as well as handling the community's reception of their modern family structure. On a broader scale, the earlier generation of our grandparents gay affairs had not been lawfully acknowledged in the United States. Children face bigger challenges from society when their parents' relationship does not fit more recognizable mentors and denied chances by the societal frameworks that endorse heterosexual nuptials (Gerson,180). In equality, gay parents are remarkably dedicated to compassionate and manage their kids. The second generation thus exhibit bigger communal complexities in family configuration and family trends than compared to the earlier day generation.

Some of the things that did not changed? My mother didn't work outside the home until she and my father needed to supplement his income to cater for my siblings educational need. My father did not increase his contribution to the housework in the year 1998 when his wife worked outside the home. Instead a nanny was liable to household chores and emotional family dynamics even though the economic burden was

left to my parents. In some instances a modern man will share in housework, but more often a woman does double duty, starting her "second shift" at home after working outside the home. My mother's salary was peanut compared to fathers when she worked. Since primary responsibility for a family often remains with the man, a woman is more likely to take a parttime or less demanding job to cope with the demanding double duty (Segal, Chow & Demos,245). So the financial burden of supporting the family is still largely on men.

In both generations, wives fine-tune to discontent in matrimony to uphold a family affair. My grandmother was archetypal of the olden homemakers such that she didn't whine of the constraints on her, even if she was a well-read lady who loathed housework. Her premature objectives of transforming the globe with her communal work grade were set aside to do her obligation by remaining at the residence to bring up the family. Taking a glance at the stressed solitary, unwed mothers and divorced women with children, coupled by the touching suffering and monetary torments clarify as to why women choose to formulate measures in place and strive in nuptials to endeavor for a pleasing life (Coltrane,64). Sexual containment to marriage has changed to accept premarital sex and sex between unmarried people, yet fidelity to one's spouse is still the norm. Infidelity was and is taboo.

The third generation

The third generation is now me and my siblings, in our family we are three children. My elder sister and a lastborn son. Having the fact that most Americans make their families become their key priorities, my generation tends to recoil and stick to the family for various reasons. Having the rampant divorces all around families, it is obvious that it will be difficult for the generations to live such a separate life in marriage. However, technological advancements have a

playing role on the kind of trends that are likely to be emulated by this young generation. The kinds of programs that are aired on the televisions at times contribute on the attitude generation by individuals at certain ages. At the moment it is not easy to emulate the trends followed by our parents and even their parents. Some people believe that electronic mail (e-mail), instant messaging (IM), text messaging, iPods, and networking sites such as Facebook are intrusive because such technologies replace close personal relationships with superficial but timeconsuming online interactions. For behavioral characteristics, the generation tends to derail in what was seen as moral misconduct by the earlier generation (Pascoe,82). The factors contributing to such characters come as an influence from external forces, for example the gay rights movement. Some of these forces tend to derail the sexual orientation of an individual ending up being a lesbian or a gay.

Predictions of the future For an opinion, the future of an American family having a trend of single parents as by a majority of the population will be sight in the near future. Considering that most of the present day families are struggling to ensure that the marriages remain strong and not ending up in divorces. The future families may stay single parented. The other aspect of sexual orientation will remain diverse depending on the choice of individuals sexuality. The issues of sexuality raise issues to do with being gay and being a lesbian (Pascoe,144). With the existence of lobby groups for the rights of such sexual orientations then it remains to be like any other right. The legalization of abortion and the like will have an impact on the family structures and trends. Having more similarities with the past generation the future is always indefinite.

Work Cited Cherlin, Andrew J. The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010. Coltrane, Scott. Family Man: Fatherhood, Housework, and Gender Equity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Gerson, Kathleen. The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation is Reshaping Family, Work, and Gender in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Howe, Tasha R. Marriages and Families in the 21st Century: A Bioecological Approach. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Isserman, Maurice and Michael Kazin. America Divided: The Civil War of The 1960s. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Messener, Michael A, Jim McKay and Donald Sabo. Masculinities, Gender Relations, and Sport. New York: SAGE, 2000. Pascoe, C. J. Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. London: University of California Press, 2007. Scott, Coltrane. Gender and Families. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998. Segal, Marcia Texler, Esther Ngang-Ling Chow and Vasilikie Demos. Social Production and Reproduction at the Interface of Public and Private Spheres. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 2012.

Swason, Dean Phillips, Malik Chaka Edwards and Margaret Beale Spencer. Development During a Global Era. New York: Academic Press, 2010.