In Your Opinion

[AquaAthena]

What caused the demise of the traditional family unit?

I say, first television and then entitlement programs. I am interested in your thoughts on this. Thanks,

AquaA*

 

[Zoom-boing]

Robots.

 

[Sherry]

The sexual revolution played a role also.

 

[uscitizen]

Television.

 

[Mr Natural]

Rock and Roll!

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Entitlements and financial stresses.

Entitlements pay better for broken families. and low income is always a horrible stresser on a marriage.

And there is just the reality that women can walk away from a bad situation, where as before they were stuck.

While in theory the traditional marriage is the best possible universe, the actual practice was something else again.

TV can't be blamed. It is actually a uniter. Something to be done together, and shared. In olden times, families were appart a lot. Hubby was away 12 hours a day for work. On off days he was out with the Shriners or whatever, and wife was doing her sewing circle. TV at home is something the whole family can do together (But never does)

 

[AquaAthena]

Rock and Roll!

Go Robert Plant and Led Z.! Yes! A fave song of mine by this great group.

 

[jillian]

you presume that families are demised. they're not. they've just changed some. but

women working.

once they had their own money, they didn't have to stay in terrible marriage because they couldn't afford to live on their own

and

anti-domestic violence initiatives and establishment of women's shelters that helped women out of abusive relationships.

and before you argue with me about it, statistics show that in large part, women leave when they've had enough; men don't generally leave until they have someone else to go to.

 

[xsited1]

What caused the demise of the traditional family unit?

I say, first television and then entitlement programs. I am interested in your thoughts on this. Thanks,

AquaA*

 

[AquaAthena]

Entitlements and financial stresses.

Entitlements pay better for broken families. and low income is always a horrible stresser on a marriage.

And there is just the reality that women can walk away from a bad situation, where as before they were stuck.

While in theory the traditional marriage is the best possible universe, the actual practice was something else again.

TV can't be blamed. It is actually a uniter. Something to be done together, and shared. In olden times, families were appart a lot. Hubby was away 12 hours a day for work. On off days he was out with the Shriners or whatever, and wife was doing her sewing circle. TV at home is something the whole family can do together (But never does)

You make interesting points. I think of TV as being the first divisive intrusion into the family unit, as so many shows portrayed unrealistically happy families and everyone stopped playing board games together, or listening to the radio, or perhaps playing outside. I really don't know what all people did before television. But I recall reading that they mostly did things, interactively, together.

 

[keee keee]

Birth control.

 

[Big Black Dog]

What caused the demise of the traditional family unit?

Greed. And it still continues today. I'm climbing up on my soap box. Years ago, the wife stayed home to raise the kids and was at home when they returned from school. In almost all cases, "Mama" knew where the kids were and what they were up to - for the most part. The husband worked to bring home the bacon and provide financially for the family. There were no credit cards so most people saved up for the things they wanted to buy and were patient enough to wait until they had saved the money to buy that special item. Along came credit cards and they were so easy to obtain and to use that many people began to live outside of their means and living the "big" life that normally was out of their financial reach. Their debt grew and grew and the next thing you know, one income was not enough for the average family. This is when the wife began to work away from the home to generate more income to pay for all the "toys" that the family just had to have to keep up with the Jones family down the street. We must all put on aires and show everybody how "well off" we are. Because "Mama" was not at home now to watch the kids, they began to get into things that they normally would not have because they were being supervised. Soon all of the family members were going their own way and even mealtime was not a center of the family any longer. This is when the family unit broke down and everybody began to focus on the "me" aspect instead of the "us" aspect of family life. IMO, it was all because of greed.

 

[Phoenix]

Change of values.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

40 hour weeks are relatively recent.

And if you read biographies, you get the impression that the only time spouses saw each other was when they woke up in the morning. Guys did guy things together, women did gal things together. Just the atomic unit having to spend time with each other is novel and rare.

 

[AquaAthena]

you presume that families are demised. they're not. they've just changed some. but

women working.

once they had their own money, they didn't have to stay in terrible marriage because they couldn't afford to live on their own

and

anti-domestic violence initiatives and establishment of women's shelters that helped women out of abusive relationships.

and before you argue with me about it, statistics show that in large part, women leave when they've had enough; men don't generally leave until they have someone else to go to.

Thank you for your impressions. And why would I argue with anybody. It isn't really necessary, imo.

 

[Mr Natural]

I'd throw mass marketing and advertising into the mix.

 

[Darkwind]

Grandma...The bitch just wouldn't let it alone.....



Honestly I would put TV and entitlement mentality at the same level.

 

[AquaAthena]

What caused the demise of the traditional family unit?

Greed. And it still continues today. I'm climbing up on my soap box. Years ago, the wife stayed home to raise the kids and was at home when they returned from school. In almost all cases, "Mama" knew where the kids were and what they were up to - for the most part. The husband worked to bring home the bacon and provide financially for the family. There were no credit cards so most people saved up for the things they wanted to buy and were patient enough to wait until they had saved the money to buy that special item. Along came credit cards and they were so easy to obtain and to use that many people began to live outside of their means and living the "big" life that normally was out of their financial reach. Their debt grew and grew and the next thing you know, one income was not enough for the average family. This is when the wife began to work away from the home to generate more income to pay for all the "toys" that the family just had to have to keep up with the Jones family down the street. We must all put on aires and show everybody how "well off" we are. Because "Mama" was not at home now to watch the kids, they began to get into things that they normally would not have because they were being supervised. Soon all of the family members were going their own way and even mealtime was not a center of the family any longer. This is when the family unit broke down and everybody began to focus on the "me" aspect instead of the "us" aspect of family life. IMO, it was all because of greed.

Very interesting.Thank you for taking the time.

And now we have 2010 and are worse off than ever, not only as a family but as a country, thanks in part, to greed in so many different ways.

 

[Xenophon]

The death of Moe Howard.

We have never been the same.

 

[Paulie]

I don't think anything even comes close to TV on this.