American Family Changes

Changes in Marriage and the American Family Family life has changed drastically since the 1950’s and 60’s. The typical family in the 60’s consisted of a married couple with children. Much like the cleaver family, the father went off to work to support his family and women stayed home and took care of the children and the household. Society was less accepting of children born to unmarried women or the “single parent”. Pew Research Center (2015) stated that two-parent households are on the decline in the United States because divorce, remarriage and cohabitation have risen and the circumstances regarding parenthood has changed. Today there is no longer a typical family and society now accepts all forms of a family unit. In my opinion the

My father died when I was only six years old, so I was raised by a single mom. She re-entered the work force part time so that she could still take care of me and the household. This of course was not the typical trend due to divorce, remarriage or cohabitation. It still fell outside the typical family unit. However, as an adult my life fell right into the trend of divorce and remarriage, forming the “blended family”. Pew Research Center (2015) stated that according to the most current data, 16% of children are living in “blended families”. A blended family consist of a stepparent, stepsibling or half-sibling. In the 60’s this was not the common family unit. However, society now accepts blended family’s as the

First, the children have a new parent to adapt to, regardless of how loving, caring and capable stepparents are it still creates stress on the children as well as the parents. Often the children of the father or mother spend their time between two households with different rules and quite possibly different life styles. In my case, my two stepdaughters lived with us every other week, while my biological children lived with us full time. According to Greenberg, (2013) “In addition to the disruption of the nuclear family, children often must cope with changes in routine; disruption of friendships, activities, and extended family relationships; changes in economic circumstances; and stresses with parents, siblings, and new stepparents and stepsiblings”. Eventually, my children once again became children of a single parent after the death of their stepfather when they were only 11 and 13 years