The Different Types of Families from the Single-Parent Family Perspective

As a child of a single-parent family, I would know how much the media underestimates the real meaning of an traditional family. A traditional family does not necessarily include a mother, a father, and their offspring. Throughout the times there has been major changes to the society, resulting in confusion of the real meaning of traditional families. As I said earlier, a traditional family does not have to include both a mother and a father in the household. But, nowadays a family can consist of a father and a father, mother and a mother, or maybe a single parent.

A single parent family consists of a lone parent and their offspring living in a household as a unit. Throughout the past twenty years, the percentage of single parent families increased.'According to studies, 88% of the single parent families are led by women. In 1970 the number of single parent families was at an astonishing 3.8million. And then in 1990 the number increased to 9.7 million, ever since the number continued to increase gradually. Although, the population of single parent families expanded, that does not necessarily mean that it is a good thing nor a bad thing. For example, in “Family Ties: Single Parent Family” states that children raised in single parent households, suffers from stereotypic views and insensitive comments. On the more positive side, single parent households are most likely to have less tension, because they are usually able to co-operate with one another. Which leads me to the topic of grandparents as parents.

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3 According to Different Types of Families: A Portrait Gallery, about 1.3 billion children under the age of eighteen lives with their grandparents. Some of the main reasons why grandparents are put into this situation is because of parental abandonment, divorce, or the death of the child’s parents. Throughout this time period of both the child and grandparent, there are a lot of imperfections created in the relationship. Such as, the child developing ADHD, depression, anxiety or even aggression. These critical mental states mostly originates from the feeling of not being wanted.

One of the biggest threats however is parental visits, parental visits to the spawn can become stressful and upsetting. To every imperfection there is almost always a bright side to everything. Therefore, children who are raised by their grandparents would most likely be adapted to the way older generations did things, which is a good thing because nowadays we have gotten accustomed to machines doing everything. Also, children who are currently growing up with their grandparent has a tendency to develop a healthy mind-set and great emotional development.As I have shown, that there are a lot of emotional discrepancies to this particular type of families, but all rewards comes to a price. Which oddly leads me to the topic of same-sex parenting.

Same-sex marriage has been the most talked about subject in the 21st century, due to the ruling in the Supreme Court of the Obergefell v. Hodges trial. The ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges was that it was unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to get married. Same-sex marriage is the marriage between partners of the same sex, as described by multiple online sites. Although, same-sex couples cannot birth babies themselves they can still have a loving family. How? You may ask,well there are many alternatives and choices same-sex couples have to fulfill their desires of wanting to be a parent. Such as: adoption and surrogacy.

There are several advantages of homosexual parents adopting children, such as the following: forming a more emotionally stable household for the child they’re adopting, their involvement in the child’s life is more motivating, and also there is no evidence that homosexual parents are less intelligent than heterosexual parents. However, it is arguable to say that the child being raised will miss their one chance in a “balanced” environment. But, wouldn't you rather want the attention to be on you rather than being outcasted? And treated the same as everyone else?

4In the mid 19th century, about 30,000 homeless children roamed the streets of New York City, so a man named Charles Loring Brace came up with the idea of making life better for those children. This magnificent idea was turned it to a movement called the Orphan Train Movement, which was ironically named due to how the orphan’s were transported to their families by train. ^Throughout time, the Children's Aid Society had progressed to not only giving children a safer place to live, but also allowing couples that were infertile to adopt. And that’s when the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 was founded, and little did the Children’s Aid Society know that the Act of 1997 would drastically change the idea of foster care forever.

Three main advantages for the children in foster care are safe and stable environments, academic benefits, and family benefits as well. Such as; the real reason of putting children in foster care and the less amount of stress to the child so they can focus more on their school work. Although, foster care offers a lot for their children, there are also disadvantages. As a matter of fact, some of the disadvantages of foster care is that if the foster home does not work out for the child or the parents the child may be moved on to another home, or other children from the foster home may make it hard for the newcomer to adjust.

To sum up this essay, not all families are the same. The world is divided into many different types of families, such as; single-parent families, same-sex families, and even blended families. And that is why I believe that the media should embrace those family types and shed light upon what the guardian and the child goes through. For the most part, these family types are different but also common in many ways. First, they all provide a safe and loving environment for the child. Secondly, the parents of the different family types are most likely to form a strong bond. Although, there are disadvantages to all types of families, don’t you think people should be aware of that?

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