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Chapter Two of NextText looks at the American family through the disciplines of sociology and public policy. How do you define "family"? Is family primarily determined through biology or something else? Do you think the American family is facing worse problems now than in the past? In your answer, refer to at least two of the essays found in pages 86-118 of NextText.
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Family is a complex word, it has numerous meanings to people. Everyone has their own definition of the “perfect” family. To me, my family is my definition of the ideal family. There are five people in my family including: my father, mother, sister, brother, and me. My parents support me in everything I do, they are always ready to help me anytime I may need help. Everything I am today is because I have such wonderful parents who are always there through the thick and thin. My loving and caring parents and siblings mean the world to me.
Family isn’t necessarily determined through biology. Some children grow up with step-mothers or step-fathers that treat them better than their biological parents, and that is still family according to me. In “Le Beau-Père,” Phyllis Rose said, “Stepfamilies may be beautiful families, offering second chances, the possibility of improving on the originals” (107). As long as there is love, support, and a good-relationship in a family then it doesn’t matter if they are biological or not.
American families are trying harder every day to become better than before. In “The American Family,” Stephanie Coontz said, “But we need to realize how much better we want to be, not how much better we used to be” (97). In the past we didn’t pay attention to child abuse and relationships that failed, so it seems as though family life was better then than now. It is true that the divorce rate is the highest in America, but we need to realize that parents are getting divorced because they don’t want to deal with abusive or unhappy relationships. In a sense, they are improving their lives and their children’s lives.
The definition of the word family is people who are related by blood, but can also live a healthy lifestyle who care and love for one another. Family is an important issue to most families who are close to one another but now it has change from what it was in the past. Now there are most divorce rates then there was before. People in the past were so close but were also afraid to leave there loved ones because it was not from what they were used to and people would think of them differently. In the essay “ Coming Home” there was a family who had not seen there dad in years because he was in war but after a year of the dad coming home the parents had divorced so it damaged the lives of the children. Everything started to change as soon as the 70’s hit. So now families are in need of help from the government because they are not financially stable or are worse from other things going on so it is different from what it was in the past.
I define "family" as a group of people who love and care about each other at all times. Family doesn't have to be determined through biology, there are many families with adopted children and with step parents and they all love each other just as they would if they were of the same blood. To me a good family is one that is loving, united and will do anything for each other, no matter who is in the family. It has that certain harmony to it. In my opinion. American family isn't really facing worse problems then it did in the past. Today's definition of a "family" is way different from before. Back then a traditional family consisted of a father, mother and 2-3 kids. Today a family can consist of one parent and any number of kids, or maybe not even any parents, i could be grandparents or even aunt or uncles. There are many variations. Some problems that the families are facing could have changed over the years, for example taxes and such but I think that every generation has it's own difficulties, so it's hard so say which one suffered most.
Family is defined as a single cohesive unit that stays together during a particular tumultuous event or crisis in which the family works together to solve the larger problem. Each of these people are not necessarily closely related but have an established bond and a common belief that they all share. This is why churches use the word "family" to describe their community instead of any other word. The American family has changed for the worse in terms of the social atmosphere, people no longer feel the need to get married or stick around when times get tough. However, within "The American Family" Stephanie Coontz writes that we are better off economically today than we were in the 1950's and we all live better lives. What she fails to acknowledge is the fact that we have fallen into a vicious social pit when it comes to a defined relationship with another partner. Coontz tries to cover this up with simple sentences such as, "Another is that we have higher expectations of parenting and marriage. That's a good thing." There is not even an attempt to hide the fact that she is downplaying crucial elements within her thesis such as why American families are getting broken apart and shattered at such a devastating rate during this era. She covers up the beauty of the nuclear family with small nuances such as "In many states, women couldn't serve on juries or get loans or credit cards..." We are talking about the American family, not your desire to spend without limits and engage in the political role of being a jury. Essays such as these are littered with foolery and its a shame such people are allowed to express their mindlessness to so many people in such a popular magazine such as LIFE.
After reading the essays found in my NextText booklet, I’ve begun thinking that what we define to be family may be a little more complex. I’ve also learned that while we may think that the present day is awful in comparison to the past, it was actually a lot worse back then in reality, as described in “The American Family”. Because I know its part of human behavior to pretend that the bad things of the past didn’t happen, I agree with “The American Family”. We aren’t really better off from where we’ve started to be, as while divorce rates are quite high today, the families maintained back in the ‘50s were simply intolerable, and supported inequality between men and women.
I define a family as a group that you love. You enjoy living with them, and you work together to overcome obstacles. A family is dependant on each other, and if even one member breaks away the whole family could fall apart. In a more practical sense, your family is determined by who you were born from. However, sometimes people would consider their friends as family or a club as “family”. As a result, the word “family” does not have an obvious, black and white meaning. An example would be in the essay “Le Beau-Pere”, where a mother marries a stepfather, unrelated to the family by genetics. This new father, however, is described as being the opposite of a “bad stepfather”, and has the care and selflessness to maintain a good family relationship. That man could easily become “family” just by his cooperation with the group.
Overall, family is defined by how well you work in a group. Your genetic family might be the most caring amongst other families, which might make that type of family the best as fare as cooperation goes.
It is difficult to truly define the term “family” in this day and age. The traditional depiction of the family unit leans toward the nuclear image: a father, a mother, and one to three children. This definition obviously does not apply to every kind of family that actually exists. Stepparents and stepsiblings share different bonds with members of their new family when compared with those who have lived together naturally. Death or divorce can leave a household without a parent, burdening the remaining members. The legalization of homosexual marriages also has the potential to radically change the definition of the family. Regardless of their contrasts, each of these units can still be called a family. A family is not ultimately dependent on a blood connection; instead, it is the emotional bonds that the members share that define their status.
The modern family has it relatively better than those that lived in the past, though there are still major concerns. In “The American Family,” Stephanie Coontz describes the problems faced by earlier generations: drugs, abuse, divorce, STDs, juvenile delinquency, and so forth. She contends that, while these problems are still around, they have decreased due to families’ adaptability. She maintains that if the nation’s institutions begin to update themselves, such problems will decline further. In addition to the older problems, a debate has stirred on the subject of the family itself. It is often argued just how a family should be run and managed. Caitlin Flanagan’s “Executive Child” highlights the central issue as she criticizes mothers who depend on others to raise their children. Flanagan describes her own child-rearing experiences to illustrate her point. While she has nothing against activities for children, she remains involved in their lives regardless of the schedule. The debate over the family and its members’ roles will undoubtedly continue, but still should be taken in perspective with all of the other issues facing families.
We all have an idea of what the perfect family is and none of us has one. To me that ideal isn’t all that great. To me my family is everything it should be and more. Family is there for you before you need them and long after they have helped you. They will be there till the very end whether it is in body or in spirit. Your family has nothing to do with biology or any blood line. To be family a person has to have an emotional connection to you, so they don’t necessarily have to be around you all the time. Timing can also determine if someone is accepted as family. Accepting someone as your new father can be difficult if it is at the wrong point of your life, or it can be a bit easier at the right time like in “Le Beau-Pere”. “Laurent arrived at a good moment, just as Ted was about to enter adolescence.” They have to earn it in whatever way possible and over time you will subconsciously categorize them as family. I believe that it is harder now than before to have a strong family bond simply because of the temptations around us and the commonality of divorces. This goes especially for families in America rather than those in other parts of the world. In “The American Family” the author states, “Our divorce rate is the highest in the world.” This is not surprising and goes to show that with time we lose sight of having that ideal family which was the only thing that kept our dysfunctional families together. Instead we take the easy way out, divorce or separation, in search of that already perfect family that is only missing one thing, you.
Every time you hear the word family the first image that pops up into people heads is the classic mother, father, and two kid’s kind of family. Usually, when people hear the word family they just think of the people who are blood related to you. When I define family I think of all the people that truly care about you, help you, and are there for you through all the good and bad times. Your family is the people that love you unconditionally. Yes, biology has a part to do with who your family is when it comes to being blood related but it is not the primary thing that determines who your family is. It is the relationships that you build with other people and how you care for them and they care for you that makes you a family. Today many people do not grow up in that perfect family setting; they live in single parent households or move from house to house, but that does not make them less of a family. Nowadays, the divorce rate of American marriages is climbing every year and is currently a little below fifty percent. This may cause some problems for children and the way they grow up. Although this is happening I agree with what they said in The American Family “In each period, families have solved one set of problems only to face a new array of challenges.” Right now that is one of the many issues families are facing right now but every generation has their own challenge.
To some family are the people you are biologically related to, but to others, including me, family are the people around you who care about you the most. In the essay The American Family, the author Stephanie Coontz mentions that the divorce rate in America is the highest in the world. Does that mean that there are fewer families? It all depends on one’s definition of family. To me, family are the people who care for you, they are the ones who are always next to you when you need them. A family doesn’t have to be the people who gave you birth, but it can be the people who raised you and watched you grow. The essay Coming Home talks about a “family” who had been together through the good and bad, but in the end the family was split up. Also, a family doesn’t only have to be one group of people, it could be several groups. My family for instance is made up of not only my biological family, but of friends as well. There are some friends that I’ve built good relationships with and it feels as if they were a brother or sister to me, even if we have no relation at all
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