Single Family & Nuclear Family Households
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The nuclear family has been held out as the "ideal" family structure, and many have been opining in recent years that the nuclear family seems to be disappearing in a world where divorce and unwed motherhood are occurring at high rates. Many families today are single-parent families with only a mother in the household. There may be different reasons why this is so. Unwed mothers represent one type of single-parent families where the mother is forced to be the sole parent and has always been the sole parent as far as the child is concerned. Widows represent another type of single-parent household, and divorced women represent still another. These last two types can be combined as what might be called single by circumstance. The single-parent household where the mother is the sole parent by circumstance may be a difficult family structure, depending on various economic and social factors pertaining to a given family, but it is clearly a viable family structure even if it does not match the ideal of the nuclear family. Such a family unit is viable because it is nothing new and has had the potential to be effective throughout human history, the loss of one parent can draw the family that remains even closer together than they were before, and the single-parent household can develop new and stronger ways of remaining a family unit and of being effective. Before considering how viable the single-parent household may be, we should consider how viable the nuclear family is
. . .
y may not be as viable as it was in the past, and in any case it is becoming less the prevailing form of family. The mother as head of household form has always existed as males have died at somewhat higher rates than women, and in the past this could be explained by war, agricultural and industrial accident, and even health problems incurred more frequently by men, such as heart attack. The family that is left generally endures.
Second, the loss of one parent can draw the remaining elements of the family closer together and in effect make them more of a family than they were before. Being a different form of family makes people think about what family means. The nuclear family is taken for granted by all concerned, while alternative family structures are an occasion for rethinking and reconsideration. Bebe Moore Campbell notes this as she looks around at her friends and sees how they have fathers while she does not. In her case, this generates a good deal of envy. Her father is not dead but is absent from the home, and she receives letters from him rather than the visits she craves:
I wanted my father to come and yell at me for acting like a monkey on a stick. I wanted him to come and beat my butt or shake his finger i
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
War II, African African-American, , Moore Campbell, Hill Collins, nuclear family, Martin's Press, family unit, Bonnie Lisle, single-parent family, family structure, single-parent household, type family, form family, family type, Review March, Colombo Robert, Robert Cullen, gary colombo robert, lisle eds, eds boston, rereading america gary, colombo robert cullen, robert cullen bonnie, america gary colombo,
Approximate Word count = 1675
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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