e commented that having her mother living in the family home eliminates after-school child care costs and makes a decent quality of life possible.
At the same time, Ms. Jones suggested that she and her family are not ôtypicalö of the families thatÆs he knows with respect to income. For example, she has never been dependent upon public assistance and ha always been able to work û perhaps as a result of her professional degree and her own determination to remain self-sufficient. The extended family has served her well, she argues, because it has made it possible for her to work overtime and to increase her income without having to pay for child care. As Hill (1998) noted, many African-American families see the extended family s a source of support and a necessary system of enhancing oneÆs quality of life.
In discussing the meaning of ôfamily,ö Ms. Jones stated that in her view and her experience, ôfamilyö means more than ôblood relationshipsö and can include individuals with whom one feels a special bond or empathy. Indeed, Wilson (20010 noted that for many African-Americans, this sense of family seems to be prevalent. Ms. Jones made reference to the fact that she has ôkinö in the rural American South and that her children regularly vacation with these relatives û and that at various times friends and family have made prolonged visits to her urban home as well. Shared resources and mutual support are apparently, in this familyÆs view, characteristics of the family unit that are of special significance.
The second interview was conducted with the Garcia family, a married couple aged 30 or so years who have two elementary school-age children in their urban home. Both parents work outside of the home, but Ms. Garcia has only just begun to do so as her youngest child entered 4th grade. Both children participate in after-school programs that make it possible for the Garcias to workÆ neither parent ha
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