2-3-09

Explain how the family structure has changed over the past. Include examples from personal experience.

When my grandparents grew up mothers stayed home to raise children. Each family had a mom, dad, and children. Husbands went to work and payed the bills, wives cleaned the house and did laundry. They would spend evenings just sitting on porch swings telling stories to little ones. Divorce was simply unheard of.
When my parents grew up most moms continued to stay home with their children, besides the "radicals" who went to work. Some women even went to college before they got married. A few marriages started to be dissolved, but only once children left the home. Families started to stop having so many children and life starting picking up the pace. Family dinners were mandated when they were young, but as they grew older they sort of dissolved.
Then my parents had me. :) I have lived to see divorce become more steady than marriage. I know of more single parent families than traditional. Gay and lesbian couples have come into being. Children are being raised by grandparents and others. Adoption, Invitro fertilization, surrogate mothers, and other terms have been introduced and continue to popularize. The world has changed its basic unit of society. These changes are sometimes hard to deal with but can broaden our views and ideas.