Assignment #7: Family

Sorry for the major delay in recent posts; this semester has been a doozy thus far. Posts for assignments 4,5, and 6 will follow shortly.

     The definition of "family" in the modern United States seems to be one with elusive properties. The family structures accepted by society are constantly shifting and adjusting to other aspects of our daily lives. Some common traits of today's family units include adoption, same sex marriage, blended families, interracial marriage, and non-tradition parental roles. I have particular interest in discussing the last characteristic listed because my family provides an example of it.
     I am the oldest child of three and my mom earned our household's main source of income while my dad took care of us kids from when my sister (the youngest) was born when I was eight until about a year ago. My parents had my brother and I in daycare for awhile when I was fairly young and, even after trying several different providers, they were unsatisfied with the care available for how much they could afford. This led them to the decision that only one of them would work while the other stayed home with us when my sister was born. At that time my mother's job was earning more money and was much more reliable that my father's job, so he was the one to care for us during the day.
     This strays from the traditional roles of the father being the breadwinner while the mother cares for the children. Although there have been significant developments in what is considered acceptable in family structures, people still seem surprised when learning that this is how our family has run for the past 14 years. Despite the role reversal, my mom is still the more nurturing one and my dad is more of the authoritarian as pictured in mainstream U.S. culture. My parents have constructed our family values based on traditional ones such as trust and spirituality; we just reach them through a different means than typically assumed of America families. I'm guessing that this family structure is becoming more and more common as economic and political conditions put additional stresses on families to adopt new methods of enduring.

Best,
Amanda