Running head: THE NUCLEAR FAMILY AND SOCIETY
The Essentiality of the Nuclear
Family in Regards to Society
When it comes to the subject of whether or not the nuclear family is essential to the positive development of Canadian society or not, there is a lot of debate, and definitely a lot to think about. Personally, I strongly believe that the nuclear family is not essential to the positive development of Canadian society, because of several factors I have thought hardly about and also researched thoroughly. The main factors include: the several disadvantages of the nuclear family, the several advantages and benefits of other types of families, and most importantly the fact that the only thing truly needed for a family to succeed is support, care, love, and all those sorts of things.
Firstly, the nuclear family is non essential because there are several disadvantages of it. The minor disadvantages include no care, problems to children, security and safety problems, and no support ("Mystic Madness," 2012). To go into further explanation of "no care", it basically means that if both parents are working, there is often less care offered/given to the child or children, because of the parents' busy schedules. It also means that, say for example, if a child were to become seriously ill, one parent would be left to deal with that situation alone (which is a lot of pressure), as they don't have elders and other family members to take care of the child, and both parents can not take care of the child because they can not both be unemployed if they want to maintain good financial stability in their household. Problems to children is basically meaning the same thing as no care - that your child will lack the care they need, due to having no other family members to take care of them. Security and safety problems basically means that people often feel insecure living in a nuclear family, because it has been found that there are more crimes easily committed against a nuclear family, which makes sense seeing as it is much easier to pull those crimes over on someone living alone or on a family of less people ("Mystic Madness," 2012). No support means that, say for example, if there is an argument between the couple, there is really no one else (that is mature, not a child) there to support them, or there is far less people there to support them, and sometimes because of this, the result can be something negative such as divorce or separation ("Mystic Madness," 2012). The most major and important disadvantage of the nuclear family has to do with the economic/financial stability of it. When in a nuclear family, it is common knowledge that you are going to make less money, than you would in say, a joint/extended family, due to the simple fact that there would be less people working and available to be bringing in money. This is all about the disadvantages of the nuclear family on society.
Secondly, the nuclear family is non essential because there are several advantages and benefits of other types of families. First off, there is the single parent family, with a few good advantages and benefits to it. These include independent decision making, stronger grandparent relationships, and less conflict (Holly Case, 2011). Independent decision making is referring to the fact that single parents usually do not have to discuss their decisions relating to their child/children with anyone else - minus a few things such as schooling and medical care IF they have shared custody with someone - but as for the smaller aspects of everyday life, those can be decided without any input from another person (Holly Case, 2011). Stronger grandparent relationships is referring to the findings from one specific study, led by Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz, PhD, of The University of Jerusalem, that has shown that children who grow up in single-parent households have stronger relationships with their grandparents than those in other types of families (Holly Case, 2011). Less conflict simply means that the home may be a more peaceful, positive, healthy environment for children if say, for example, parents were to become single after a bitter relationship (Holly Case, 2011). There is also the joint/extended family, which has a lot of great advantages to it. This type of family is great mainly because of its ability to provide an outstanding financial and emotional support system, and the fact that members of the family from different generations can share their triumphs as well as their failures to each other which always serves as amazing learning experience (Harri Daniel, 2010). The joint/extended family provides lots of care, support and minimal stress for everyone in it, because, for example, the mother in the family could easily go out and work because she will almost always have a convenient, no cost, built in babysitter living at home (that 'babysitter' being one of the many others in the family - the relatives). The best thing about the joint/extended family is how the elders in the family teach the children in the family things related to society, religion and relationships, as well as plenty about their cultural heritage, which as a result instills strong and positive bonding between the children, their parents, and society (Harri Daniel, 2010). There are several other benefits and advantages of the single parent family and the joint/extended family, but those stated are the strong, key few. Of course, there is also several other types of families not discussed in this paragraph, simply because it would take far too long to go through them all since they all have a crazy amount of advantages and benefits to them. This just proving that the nuclear family is not essential, since there are clearly so many other great types of families.
Lastly, the nuclear family is non essential because all that is needed for a family to succeed is support in caring for itself, along with love, protection, and all that good stuff. Basically, if a family meets certain proper characteristics, it does not matter at all what type of family it is. A professional in this area, named Judith Stacey, has stated, "The family type that is best for children is one that has responsible, committed, stable parenting..." (Biblarz & Stacey, 2010). There are several studies to back up Stacey's statement. For example, despite the many opinions that a mother and a father in a household is needed for positive raising of children, the Journal of Marriage and Family study has found that "fatherless" children are not always exactly at a disadvantage and also that men do not provide any type of different parenting than women do (Biblarz & Stacey, 2010). Similar, related studies have also found that gay couples are just as well off at raising children in a family as straight ones are (Biblarz & Stacey, 2010). These studies are a clear example as to how family types don't matter, which once again proves to us how being a nuclear family is not an essential.
Overall, after my thorough research on the several disadvantages of the nuclear family, the several advantages and benefits of other types of families, and the fact that the only thing truly needed for a family to succeed is support, care, love, etc., I still stand believing that the nuclear family is not essential to the positive development of Canadian society, and hopefully others will have a better understanding of this belief, too.
