In Chapter one we learn “what a family is.” The most current definition used in the book for our purposes is that a family is an intimate group of two or more people who live together in a committed relationship, care for one another and any children, and share activities and close emotional ties. We also learn what the important functions a family must fulfill to ensure a society’s survival. The functions include: socializing children, providing family members with emotional support, legitimizing and regulating sexual activity, and placing family members in society. We then learn how marriage, families and kinship systems vary. The family may vary depending on if they are nuclear or extended, patrilocal, matrilocal, or neolocal. We learn that the term family can mean different things to different people. The text then goes into talking about myths about the family. Some myths could include beliefs about the nature of the family, the family as a refuge from outside pressures, and myths about the perfect family…etc. We learn about the micro and macro level explanations for the changes in the family. In the end it is agreed that the family is always changing. There is still ongoing debate as to weather this change is for the better or for the worse.
I found the section on the myths of the family to be quite interesting. I found it most interesting reading the part about how we often hear that in ‘the good ole days’ people were happier and had fewer problems. The text then went into saying we have this myth because of the influence of movies and television, and how many of us cherish romantic notions of life in earlier times. I could relate to this because I am a sucker for old romantic comedies, and I find myself thinking about ‘the good ole days.’ Reading this section made me realize that maybe the ‘good ole days’ weren’t as golden as they were portrayed to be. Maybe I idealize them only because I only know so little about the past. The book keens in on this point when they talk about how the ‘good ole days’ were filled with deprivation, loneliness, and dangers.
It is stated in the text that, “By 2007, almost one in four children was living in a mother-only home.” My question is why do you think that it is mostly only mother homes and why aren’t more children choosing to live with their fathers? Do you think they even have an option when it comes to this?
Maria Nicholas
Talking about the last topic in which it is mostly one mothered homes I believe has a good amount to do with families that grow up in poverty in which the father cannot provide for his family or does not want to. Along with this, mothers are typically favored legally as the child's caregiver in which it would take a lot of wrong doing on her part to lose custody.I think the child can have a good say in where they want to go but not have the main say depending on how old they are and how rational their thinking is.
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