Summary
"On the Future of Family Structure" by Reihan Salam discusses the ever changing family structure in the United States and possible implications for the future of the family. The article emphasizes the economy and the fact that "economic outcomes for children are profoundly shaped by family structure". For example, a main reason for the U.S.'s high child poverty rates is due to the fact that about half of adolescents do not live with both biological parents. The family structure has also become fairly polarized. For example, high socioeconomic households are embracing a "neo-traditional" family structure, families led by dual earning couples in which duties are shared, however, "one parent focuses on market labor while the other focuses on household labor", whereas lower socioeconomic households are quite often led by single mothers. According to University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox, these "neo-traditional" families will continue to increase in addition to egalitarian marriages.
Annalee Newitz, editor of io9, believes that we are about to witness a revolution similar to that of the sexual revolution of the 1960's, except in relation to reproductive freedom. Today, it is becoming increasingly common for people to have multiple sexual partners over a lifetime and women can have children without the support of a man. She belives it is going to become even "more common for women to have children outside of marriage" and women experiementing with various parenting arrangements.
The nature of marriage is also shifting from serving economic purposes to focusing on providing love and companionship. In addition, U.S. family policy has become much more lax when it comes to governing who can get married or divorced. Some believe that this will lead to an undermining of the U.S. family.
What I Learned
I learned that there is incredible variation among U.S. families and I think that this is only going to further increase over the years. I'm not sure that there is a right or wrong type of family structure. In my opinion, the main concern should always be for the children's wellbeing.
Question/Concern
Would ever you consider having/adopting a child as a single parent?
Yes, I would consider having or adopting a child as a single parent. To me marriage does not equal family, and to have a family I do no feel as though I need to be married to the child's father. I believe I stated this in another comment. I think that your answer to this question would depend on the type of family you come from. I come a family where my parents are divorced, and my mom is remarried. But before my mom got remarried she was a single mother for about 8 years, and even when she did get married she still raised me as if she was a single mother, because she did not ask my stepfather for anything when it came to supporting me (my father was still in the picture and fulfilling that role). My grandmother was and still is a single mother. I have seen a lot of strong women in my family fulfill this role and succeed at it, so it is not something that I would ever be completely against, because things happen. I could be married one day and a single mother the next, so I am not going to rule it out. It will just be a different set of challenges to face.
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