By asking these questions, children are trying to understand two things about families: the different structures that families can take and the changes in structure, lifestyles and relationships that can occur.Īny group of people living together in a household can create and call themselves a family. From time to time you can expect your youngsters to ask questions like "Why do people get divorced?" "How come Jimmy's mother and father don't live together?" "Why does Annette's father live with another lady?" Because families are so important to children, parents need to be able to answer such questions with more than mere slogans or quick replies. In more than two thirds of families, both parents work outside the home.Įven if your own family fits the more traditional mold, your children will almost certainly have some friends who live in households with different structures. Some children live in foster families others live in step-families or in gay and lesbian families. Currently, 30 percent of American families are now headed by single parents, either divorced, widowed, or never married. If your own family is not like the one you grew up in, your situation is certainly not unusual. Today, with the entry of so many more women into the workforce, with the increasing divorce rate, and with the growing number of single-parent households, other family structures have become more common. You may have grown up in the stereotypical American family - two parents and one or more children, with a father who worked outside the home and a mother who stayed home and cared for the children and the household. The American family is a rapidly changing institution. Is there such a thing as a "perfect" family?
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