SingleParent Family We Love We Share We Play

Single-Parent Family We Love We Share We Play We Laugh We Fight Family We Live Class: Sociology Project 2 Date: July 23 th, 2016 Presenter: Shen Yuan Chiu

Definition Of Family • A family is a group of two people or more, and one of them is the householder, related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together. (U. S. Census Bureau 2012 a) • A fundamental social group in society which provides protection, cares, and supports includes two people or more, and it is not necessary that they have blood relation.

The Function of Family 1. Reproduction: Families can increase the population of society by offering the biological reproduction 2. Education: Parents and other family members monitor a child’s behaviors and system of values, and they also teach a child languages and some basic live skills. 3. Protection: Families provide a comfortable place for their child to live and go to work to pay basic household expenses

4. Companionship: Families provide members with warm and intimate relationships, and offer suggestions when we meet obstacles or problems. We expect that our parents and siblings understand us, care for us, and support us. 5. Provision of Social Status: We inherit a social position because of the background of our family members. For example, the ethnicity, education level, occupation, and religion of our families will influence us, and we might have the same social status with our family members.

The Form of Family 1. Types of family on the basis of size or structure: • Nuclear Family • Joint Family 2. Types of family on the basis of the status of guardian: • Double-Parents Family • Grandparenting Family • Single-Parent Family • Gay/Lesbian Family

The Reason of Single-Parent Family 1. Death of a Partner: Because of the risk of giving birth of a baby, some mother died after baby was born; one of parents died of diseases or died from accidents 2. Divorce of coupled parents: Because of some problems such as tough economic situation, different system of values, and bad living habits, etc.

3. Unmarried Mother: One situation is that when a woman are pregnant, but baby’s father leaves them when baby are born; other situation is that a woman was raped by a man, and she was pregnant. She decided to raise her baby alone.

The form of Single-Parent Family 1. Father as Guardian: this kind of single-parent family is far less common happened in the society of the U. S. , it is just only 16% in all single-parent family 2. Mother as Guardian: this kind of single-parent family was very common not only in the society of the U. S. but also in the world; it is about 80. 6%

The Difficulties Single-Parent Family meet 1. Financial Problem and health care: Because in single-parent family there is just one person working to pay expenses on household, mother or father has to find two jobs or more or work overtime to earn money to maintain financial stability; because kids are easily to get sick, the medical costs will increase their burdens. 2. Lack time to accompany their children: Because single mothers or fathers has to work hard to raise their kids, they don’t have enough time to get along with them. However, kids really need supports and company of their parents.

Stereotypes of Single-Parent Family 1. Kids Seen as Troublemakers: Because parent of kids growing up in single-parent family is lack of time to listen to their kids about things happened in schools or between friends, they can’t find ways to release their emotions. In the end, they will have violent tendency. 2. Living in Poor and Tough Lives: Because raising kid needs to spend abundant of money and mental and physical effort, especially for single mothers, they can’t earn sufficient money to erase financial burdens.

The rate of Single-Parent Family in the World • In the U. S. , according to the 2012 census, 25. 9% of children under 18 years old live in single parent households, and women head approximately 84% of these families. Besides, 22% of single-parent family are white, 57% are African-American, and 33% are Hispanic. The rate of single-parent family is increasing recent years. • In Canada, 19. 3 % of all Canadian children lived with single parents, and 82. 3% of these children live with single mothers.

The number of single parent households is rising, especially in industrialized countries.

The Functionalist Perspective of Single-Parent Family • The functions of family are to offer supports, cares, and raising to their kids. However, because in singleparent family, there is only one parent, sometimes it is hard for them to fully take care of their kids. Therefore, schools, governments, and societies play important roles on solving this kind of social problem.

• Because schools are like family, kids will try to find supports, cares, and respects from schools. Therefore, teachers and classmates should take care of those kids from single-parent family. Besides, government should make some plans to help to ease off financial stress of single mothers or fathers. The most important of all, societies should treat those kids growing in single-parent family well. We cannot judge anyone by their backgrounds before we really knew the personalities of them.

The Conflict Perspective of Single-Parent Family • Kids growing up in single-parent family will be treated as problem students in schools, troublemakers in society, or problem children in family. The reason is that people think that those kids live in an unhappy and impoverished family, and those negative factors deeply influence the behaviors and system of values of kids.

• Single mothers or fathers will meet unfair treatment from workplaces. For example, if kids are sick or emergency happened, they have to ask a childcare leave about couple days because there is no other people can take care of sick kids. Employers don’t like their employees to ask a leave, single parent may lose their jobs. It explains that development, especially strategies based on capitalism, worsens the situation for women.

Examples of My Friends Grow Up in Single-Parent Family • Name: James • Types of Family: Single-Parent Family • Reasons of Single-Parent Family: Mother died when he was little • Family members: One Brother, one father • Experiences in school: When he was in school, his classmates laughed at him that he didn’t have mother. At beginning, he was sad angry. However, because his teachers and some good friends supported and took care of him, he decided to lived his life seriously. Now, he is person full of positive power, and he will try to help those kids like him.

• • • Name: Wesley Types of Family: Single-Parent Family Reasons of Single-Parent Family: Parents Divorced Family members: One mother, himself Experiences: Because he grew up in single-parent family, he had to help his mother to ease off financial burdens. Therefore, he took part time job to earn money when he was still a high school student. Therefore, it was hard to find a balance between school and work. Therefore, he decided to give up to go to college, and found a stable full time job to pay household expenses.

Questions and Answers Question: Because divorce of parents is the chief reason causes the phenomenon of single-parent family not in the U. S. , but also in the world, is it better that force kids to grow in a doubled parent family but they are not happy at all because there are many conflicts and gaps appearing in the family than that parents decided to divorce to flee away the unhappy marriage and decide to raise their kids alone? Answer: In my opinion, it is really hard to decide which way is the best solution. Being parents is a lesson full of challenges and patience. Before signing divorcement certificate, parents have to think more about their kids: what kind of influences will cause in their kids’ minds. There is no problems which cannot be solved. Therefore, no matter what decision you choose, you have to try your best to support, take care of , and teach your kids.

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