Society’s Nuclear Family vs. Modern Single Parent Family
Family is the foundation of an individual. From the moment you were born, family surrounds you. Family members teach kindness, care, and love. Along with those traits, family teach values and skills. Values consist of knowing right from wrong, honesty, and selflessness. Skills gained from having a family include learning a language and knowing how to do household chores. By having a family, you are able to find yourself as a person, socially and culturally.
However, there are multiple types of family nowadays. According to Christina M. Gibson-Davis, there are families that are nuclear, blended, single parent, fostered, adoptive, and same sex parents. There are wide ranges of different parenting styles and family dynamics that go with each family type.
Despite the many types of families, nuclear family is the most favorable type of family in society due to its vast usage in advertisement, television and movies. A nuclear family has two parents, a mother and a father, and their child.
While nuclear families are shared across mass media, single parent families are stigmatized as the opposite of nuclear families. If nuclear families are portrayed as wholesome and full of love, then single parent families are portrayed as unfulfilled and lacking. A single parent family has one parent and their child. It is most likely the single parent to be mothers.
We, as a society, need to recognize the different types of families that exist. Instead of favoring or representing only one type of family in advertisement, television and movies, we need to appreciate and commend families that are stigmatized. Specifically, single parent families need recognition and appreciation, rather than judgment and scrutiny.
As the oldest child of three to a single mom, I did not recognize how different I was to others because of my family. I had a mom who worked from 8am to 5pm and who also cooked and bathed my siblings and I when she got home from work. I had a mom who taught me how to fold laundry and who also taught me how to drive. I thought I had a mom who was extremely hardworking while others had two parents who split up the work of raising a child.
By focusing on the positives of single parent families, we are able to lift single parent families up in a positive light and lessen the social pressure of society on single parents.
