NONtraditional families are the new traditional family
When Traditional became NonTraditional
Over the years we've seen an outburst of what society calls "Untraditional families," and these include a variety of factors. For one, biracial families became popular and mixed families were seen everywhere. We then saw an outburst of older parents, those who decide to not have kids and those who are single parent families. Additionally, the growth and acceptance of the LGBTQ community allowed us to see same sex couples and marriages.
In society, a traditional family would consist of these things; a husband who provides for the family and has a job, a wife who stays at home cleaning the house and preparing for the kids, about two kids, same nationality families. Nowadays, we don't see this. We see biracial families, single parent households, same sex couples, those who don't have children, a switch in roles between a husband who stays at home and a wife that works, the list can go on.
So why do these nontraditional families, though more common that the "traditional" family, still seem to be looked down upon in our society? For one, we explore the dynamics of why these were traditional families in the first place. Gender roles are a big part of it, since men and women were seen to only be capable of certain things. When we see a woman who works and is also a single parent, this isn't "traditional" to society but also does not emulate what society would expect a woman to be doing when starting a family herself. Another example would be biracial and interracial families. This is a big part of how a nontraditional family has become traditional, because more often than not we see that families are mixed, we rarely see or meet individuals that are of just one race. Years ago, this wasn't the case. We only saw same nationality families. Many biracial families weren't welcomed, and this often caused conflict.
Over the years we've seen an outburst of what society calls "Untraditional families," and these include a variety of factors. For one, biracial families became popular and mixed families were seen everywhere. We then saw an outburst of older parents, those who decide to not have kids and those who are single parent families. Additionally, the growth and acceptance of the LGBTQ community allowed us to see same sex couples and marriages.
In society, a traditional family would consist of these things; a husband who provides for the family and has a job, a wife who stays at home cleaning the house and preparing for the kids, about two kids, same nationality families. Nowadays, we don't see this. We see biracial families, single parent households, same sex couples, those who don't have children, a switch in roles between a husband who stays at home and a wife that works, the list can go on.
So why do these nontraditional families, though more common that the "traditional" family, still seem to be looked down upon in our society? For one, we explore the dynamics of why these were traditional families in the first place. Gender roles are a big part of it, since men and women were seen to only be capable of certain things. When we see a woman who works and is also a single parent, this isn't "traditional" to society but also does not emulate what society would expect a woman to be doing when starting a family herself. Another example would be biracial and interracial families. This is a big part of how a nontraditional family has become traditional, because more often than not we see that families are mixed, we rarely see or meet individuals that are of just one race. Years ago, this wasn't the case. We only saw same nationality families. Many biracial families weren't welcomed, and this often caused conflict.
Biracial, Interracial Families forming in Today's Society
Biracial and interracial families started to become more normative when the anti-miscegenation laws were repealed in the United States in 1967. As the law repealed more and more mixed families started to come about and become more normal. Although these families have been looked down upon, they still continue to flourish in society. Single motherhood has become more normal within the past 50 years. Woman being single parents has become more normal because woman are having children before getting married, not marrying at all after having a kid, or just in an unmarried relationship. In 2008, same sex marriage became legal, this opened more opportunity for LGBTQ+ couples to have a family including children. This was not seen as normal with the obvious of people of the LGBTQ+ community having to fight the law to be able to get married. Leading to eventually becoming more of a normal family setting in accepting areas.
Adjusting to Nontraditional Families becoming Traditional, how our Society has adjusted
In a 2006 article by ABCNews, Kate Rice explains the difficulties many nontraditional families faced when trying to figure out how to adjust to this new "normal." With expectations from friends and family members on what a "traditional" family is supposed to look like, while facing discrimination about their new twist on a traditional family.
Rice centers around same sex couple, Gina Smith and Heidi Norton (2004), who have two sons. While Norton is the biological mother, Smith has also adopted the two boys and they raise them together. From the get go, we see that Smith and Norton are a same sex couple that is widely accepted through the LGBTQ community but often still becoming adjusted throughout society; especially those with high morals and values on how a "traditional" family should look like. Rice explains that, "Americans have to deal with the great myth of the 1950s, an era in which 60 percent of families consisted of a breadwinning father and a stay-at-home mother" (2006). Furthermore, many people still believe in this family picture and often many families are following this "traditional family" myth and making it a reality. With high morals and expectations on what a family is supposed to look like, it becomes difficult to work around the society we live in without facing what seems to be discrimination between gender and gender roles.
Luckily, Rice explains that with such an influx of nontraditional families there is hope that the switch in gender roles and household roles will allow families to become more diverse. There can also be a shift in how women are treated in the workplace as becoming more well respected, without being silently discriminated due to gender, will then help our society. Additionally men staying at home or helping around the house will become normalized, and the equality of roles around the house will give a balance to these diversified families.
The article then continues to state that no one said that this was written In stone. Men should not feel obligated to go to work and become the "breadwinner," and women should never feel restricted to stay at home to cook, clean, and take care of the children or or other house work. These aren't facts, instead they're myths that society has continued to hold over people's heads that continuing generations have learned from their ancestors. With this mindset of how a gender should play itself in a family, our society will continue stagnant instead of moving forward. Fortunately, with the influx of diversity, we'll be able to celebrate the fluctuation of different genders playing different roles in, outside, and throughout society.
Rice ends with, "The fact is that families have always been diverse, and they've always been in flux and we've always been worried about it. As far back as colonial days people were complaining that the new generation of families was not like the old one" (Rice, 2006). In other words, there are more ways than one to make a family and to have a happy, successful one.