A contemporary view of the family
The family has been the primary unit of social relationship for many millennia. The traditional father, mother, and children dynamics have served as the fundamental basis of the definition of a family. However, sociologists have continued to rely on the direct relationship between the essential members of this nuclear unit of society until recent changes disrupted it. Modern “influences such as homosexuality and increased divorce have continued to redefine the family leading to the emergence of newer definitions that differentiate themselves from the traditional one completely” (Wooldridge 201). However, the main observation as this paper shall demonstrate is that the modern view of the family is slightly different from the traditional one.
For many ages, the definition of family has been the relationship shared between the most basic units of the society. A typical couple would fall in love, get married, and then get children resulting in the formation of the family. The same definitions would extend to the members of the two families from where the father and mother came. Such views on the definition of the family led to the formation of tight bonds between these members, especially those in the nuclear family consisting of the father mother and the resulting children. Interestingly, the members of both families would extend kinship due to the union of the two members of their families. The new relations would lead to the formation of extended families, a characteristic of social bonding between different members of the society.
However, recent pressures have changed these definitions resulting in the erosion of the principal bond that held the members of the family together. The factors that threaten the traditional definition of the family include manmade and natural incidents that often result in the destruction of the fundamental bond. The resulting fragments of the family are left to their own devices and due to the usual tendency of human being to desire the social and emotional relationship, seek out opportunities to form new families.
