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Society's View of Single Parent Family

The more things change, the more people wish that they would stay the same. Or at least that seems to be the case when it comes to AmericansÆ ideas about what constitutes a real family. This paper examines the ways in which society assumes that a single-parent family is somehow not a real family and how this fact makes the other stresses faced by single parents even more difficult. It also looks at two of the most difficult areas for single parents û providing emotional support for their families and providing financial security for their families.

Despite the fact that the majority of American children born today are likely to find themselves in a single-parent household at some point (Wagonseller etal, 1997, p. 14), the ideal of a perfect family in most peopleÆs minds is still made up of a mother, a father and two or three children. The stereotype of this perfect family for most people may still also include a mother who stays at home full time. But the ideal of the typical family has shifted to some extent in the post-World War II years to catch up with the realities of the late 20th century to reflect the fact that most women now work. However, most peopleÆs ideal of a perfect American family includes only one parent who puts in long hours at work (and this is usually the father) with another parentÆs working part time to help make ends meet but who has enough time left over to be there for teacher-parent conferences, to bake cookies and to shuffle kids back and forth to soccer games (Brown and Simmons, 1998, p. 33).

Any family that differs from this basic structure is seen as being somehow not only different but wrong. This is true even if the family in question has more than two adults rather than fewer than two: Families with grandparents living at home as well as parents (and so that might be considered as being four-parent families rather than two) are also considered odd and to some extent share the same problems a...

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Society's View of Single Parent Family. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 19:57, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700790.html