1.

TTEL: SZEMLYES VONATKOZSOK, CSALD

A CSALD SZEREPE AZ EGYN LETBEN

Importance of Family in Our Life

By Kathryn Parry

Not everyone out there can imagine life without a family. Barring a few unfortunate
individuals, for most of us our family is an integral part of our lives. No law in this world can
defy this fact. The moment you enter this merciless world, where each man is for himself,
there are some near and dear ones out there who leave no stone unturned to ensure your
happiness.
Lets face it; we are nothing more than a perishable object, without someone taking care of us on
our arrival in this world. Despite all the odds, your family will take care of your wellbeing, and try
their best to provide you the greatest comforts in the world. They will also protect your dignity and
make sure that your boat sails successfully to the shore, irrespective of the odds in life.
It doesnt require a sharp memory to recall those days, when your parents must have spent
sleepless nights to ensure that you feel homely, get well or ease your burden. No one out there,
except your family must have forgiven the endless number of blunders you must have committed
in your life. Apart from teaching you forgive and forget lessons, they must have always been there
for you, when you needed them the most.
The values and coaching passed on to us from our family members will stay there guiding us for
the rest of our lives, thereby ensuring our growth and survival in the society. It wont be an
understatement to claim that our family is the first institute where we were taught how to cope up
with the physical world. In fact, psychologists state that a child learns most of the things in life
from his family. After all, we all inherit some qualities from our parents.
Right from changing the diapers when we could barely stand on our feet, to supporting us with a
responsible shoulder for tear shedding, our family members stand by us like a rock solid force
compelling us to face the world courageously, even during times of adversity. Goes without
saying, the family is the most important force responsible for shaping our personality.
Even when we migrate from one place to another, we carry our family values with us. In fact, our
family is responsible for our identity. Remember, the world knows you by your actions and not by
your intentions. Whatever we have learned from our family over the years serves as a basic
premise for our actions in life. As such, individuals with extended family enjoy more benefits over
a person who decides to lead a solo life. A person with a family receives an emotional edge,
which often results into his success in life.
During hard times, everyone in the family including you benefit due to the extended relationship,
especially during events such as death, accident and so on. Also, the joy associated with success
or any other happy moment magnifies when our family is around. Everyone out there is able to

reap the benefits of one persons success, whether its your birthday, a new business venture or
any other milestone in life.
While technology has certainly helped families stay in close contact with each other, can it replace
the feeling that one receives after hugging his/her child or can it serve as an ideal barter for a pat
on the back? Whatever the case may be, the significance of family is incalculable!
FORRS:
Life.html

http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/13683/1/Importance-of-Family-in-Our-

A CSALD SZEREPE A TRSADALOMBAN

The first thing that society shapes in regard to family life is the definition of what
constitutes a family. For example; twenty years ago a homosexual man and his partner
would not have been considered a family in America. As American society changed so did
the realization of what constitutes a family changed.
Dominant religious beliefs in a society also shape how a family lives and how family
members respond to one another. For example: Life among devout Christians and life
among devout Muslims is very different. The holidays that are celebrated and the manner
in which the family worships each have their own patterns. The days of worship are
different as well as the belief's of the afterlife and consequences for engaging in certain
patterns of behavior.
The hierarchy of a family is also affected by society. Many years ago women were only
allowed to work in the home. They could not make financial decisions and all property
rights were handed down to men. In some societies this has not changed, but in American
and Western society Women experience the same rights as men.
Family values are shaped by society as a whole. If a person lives in a society where
spending time with family members outweighs the need for a median income, the family
will forgo even some of the necessities to ensure that both parents spend more time with
the children. In America mothers used to be expected to be home raising their children,
but now in many households men stay home and women work. Children may attend day
care while both parents work.
Even weight patterns and body image is shaped by societal expectations. As a result
families find themselves facing rigorous exercise routines, eating too much, and even
dysfunctional eating patterns as well as healthy patterns.
Media representation often reflects the social patterns of the family unit. In media today
we are faced with a violent and dangerous society. The influence of the increase in
murders and even dangers to children in schools has resulted in most family unites
providing cell phones for their children.

The mobility of a society is also a significant social factor that influences family. Years ago
transportation was limited and took a long time. Families tended to live closer together
and assist one another. As transportation became cheaper and readily available, business
expanded in different directions. As a direct result extended family units are often spread
throughout the world. Transportation has also made it easier for family to visit one
another.
There are so many areas in which family is affected by society.
FORRS: http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/provide-three-examples-howsociety-shapes-fam-392525
mkcapen1, Teacher, Middle School, Valedictorian, Teaching Assistant, Expert, Tutor

XXXX

Society shapes our family lives in several way, three of which are:
1. Financially
2. Behaviorally
3. Intellectually (Cognitively)
FORRS: http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/provide-three-examples-howsociety-shapes-fam-392525
herappleness, Teacher, Graduate School ,Educator Emeritus, Expert, Instructor, Scribe,
Dickens, The Bard

CSALDI MUNKAMEGOSZTS, SZEREPEK A CSALDBAN

Division of Family Labor

How much housework are men and women doing?
The most recent estimates suggest that women are spending about 17.5 hours per
week on
housework and men are spending about 10 hours per week.
How have patterns in family labor changed?

Movement toward equality; that is, the discrepancy between the amount of housework
men do and the amount of housework women do has decreased. However, much of this
decrease is due to the fact that women spend much less time doing housework now
rather than men increasing their load.
What kind of work are men and women doing?
Women spend more time in core household tasks (cooking, cleaning, laundry) than
men. Men spend more time doing outdoor chores, repairs and maintenance, and yard
work. The fact that women are spending more time than men in labor that benefits the
household means that not only do they have more work to do, but they have less time for
leisure activities than men. This is known as the leisure gap.
Explanations for the Division of Labor
1) Time Constraints
Womens greater housework time is because they spend less time in the labor market.
2) Sex-role attitudes
The unequal division of labor exists because men and women believe that women should
be doing
more housework.
3) Relative Resources
Housework is something individuals will try and avoid. Those with more resources can
buy their way out of housework. Implications of the division of labor for relationships
Marital quality
Individual Happiness
How Couples Manage Inequality in the Division of Labor
Hochchilds The Second Shift (1989) Interviewed 50 couples, in-depth observation with 12
Create family myths
Use of family fetishes
Family Myth of
Upstairs/Downstairs
One day, when I asked Nancy to tell me who did which tasks from a long list of
household chores, she interrupted me with a broad wave of her hand and said I do the
upstairs, Evan does the downstairs. What does that mean? I asked. Matter-of-factly, she
explained that the upstairs included the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, two
bedrooms, and two baths. The downstairs meant the garage, a place for storage and
hobbies Evans hobbies. She explained this as a sharing arrangement, without humor
or irony just as Evan did later. Both said they had agreed it was the best solution to the
dispute. Evan could take care of the car, the garage, and Max, the family dog. As Nancy
explained, The dog is all Evans problem. I dont have to deal with the dog. Nancy took
care of the rest.
Family Fetishes

For Evan, also, the dog came to symbolize the entire second shift: it became a fetish.
Other men, I found, had second-shift fetishes too. When I asked one man what he did to
share the work of the home, he answered I make all the pies we eat. He didnt have to
share much responsibility for home; pies did it for him. Another man grilled fish. Another
baked bread. In their pies, their fish, and their bread, such men converted a single act
into a substitute for a multitude of chores in the second shift, a token. Evan took care of
the dog.
The Stalled Revolution
Persistence of inequality in household labor in spite of greater equality in time

spent in paid

labor

FORRS:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~s2005.soc.134/134lecture38(apr15
).pdf
GENERCIK EGYTTLSE

More families find three generations living under the same roof
November 25, 2010 12:00 am
By Tim Grant / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Families are coming back together in ways this nation has not seen in 50 years.
Multiple generations of the same family are finding themselves living under one roof, as children
take longer to leave home, grandparents care for grandchildren and adult children help care for
their aging parents.
Since bottoming out around 1980, the trend has risen to a 50-year high point because of more
people in need of help after losing jobs, filing for bankruptcy, facing foreclosure or having their
savings wiped out in the stock market.

As of 2008, a record 49 million Americans, or 16.1 percent of the total U.S. population, lived in a
family household that contained at least two adult generations or a grandparent and at least one
other generation, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis of Census data.
Those numbers are believed to be even higher today.
"This is a trend we will see increase in the immediate future," said Jeff Passel, a senior
demographer at the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., and leading author of the
multigenerational family study.
In the past, it was fairly common for multiple generations to share the same roof.

The fictitious Walton family had three generations living together in the hit 1970s TV series set in
the Virginia mountains during the Great Depression. Even so, there were only 32 million
multigenerational families in the 1940s compared with nearly 50 million today.
Even the White House now qualifies as a multigenerational household with the president, first
lady, their two daughters and girls' grandmother sharing the family living quarters.
The trend has found its way into the newspaper funny pages.
Cartoonist Ed Stein brings a modern twist to the comics page with his strip, "Freshly Squeezed,"
which looks at family togetherness after the economic collapse.
In the new strip -- which is running in the Post-Gazette through this week on a test basis -- Liz and
Sam have it all: a happy marriage, a precocious preteen son and a house that's just the right size
for the three of them. But when Liz's parents lose their retirement savings in the economic
collapse, they're forced to move in with their grown children and grandchild.
The strip, launched in September, is based on Mr. Stein's own experience 20 years ago when his
mother died and his then 80-year-old father decided to move in with him while he and his wife
raised toddlers.
"It's not easy to try to balance a life where three generations are living under the same roof," said
Mr. Stein, who lives in Denver. "I wanted to design a comic strip that touched the emotional reality
of what people are experiencing.
"I hope it is emotionally honest about the issues that come up," he said.
Older adults, however, are not the age group most responsible for the overall rising trend. That
distinction belongs to young adults ages 25 to 34 who have boomeranged back to live with their
parents after being on their own.
Just 11 percent of young adults in this age group lived in multigenerational family households in
1980. By 2008, 20 percent did, according to Pew researchers.
"If there is a positive to this trend, it's that people and families realize we are interdependent and
need each other," said Donna Butts, executive director of Generations United in Washington, D.C.
"Multigenerational family living is our roots. We will see a larger population of American families
living in multigenerational households in the foreseeable future," she said, adding that even
divorced people are cohabitating with ex-spouses now because they can't afford to move out.
The multigenerational household trend is a fact of life here as well as across the country.
More often these days, when families in the Pittsburgh area shop for new homes, they want more
than anything else extra bedrooms and more living space to accommodate more family members.

"It's as if they know it's going to happen, and they want to plan ahead," said Robbins Bobbitt, an
agent with Howard Hanna Real Estate. "Some of it might be due to the economy, and some of it
is due to families pulling together to take care of each other."
She said many clients were asking for flexible space such as a gameroom that could do double
duty, a first-floor office that could be converted to a bedroom, a first-floor master bedroom or a
basement apartment.
Circumstances vary in each case. Grown children are moving back into their old rooms. Families
are taking in Grandma and Grandpa. Down-and-out brothers and sisters need a chance to get
back on their feet, and even out-of-work aunts and uncles are looking for a place to crash until the
economy recovers.
These family reunions are not always happy occasions.
This week, a Hempfield man admitted to police that he shot his wife in the shoulder while they
were arguing over a relative moving in. The 63-year-old man fetched a loaded .357-caliber
Magnum from a cupboard and pointed it at his 58-year-old wife. He claimed he wanted only to
scare her and that the shooting was an accident.
Multigenerational living arrangements work best when families come back together by choice,
such as when elder parents move in to help care for a child, or so grown children can care for
their own parents without traveling outside the home.
"They realize a richness in past family traditions and culture being passed to younger
generations," Ms. Butts said.
The living arrangements are not always as positive when prompted by stressful circumstances.
Several families in the Pittsburgh area who live in multigenerational housing conditions declined
to be interviewed for this report due to the embarrassment some family members felt regarding
the economic reasons that forced them to move in with relatives.
There was a time when multiple generations living under the same roof was as normal as horsedrawn buggies. In 1940, about 25 percent of the population lived in a household with more than
one generation.
But the extended family household fell out of favor in this country right after World War II when the
suburbs developed and single-family homes proliferated.
By 1960, Pew researchers say, 15 percent of households in this country were multigenerational
families. The number continued to drop until it hit its lowest level of 12.1 percent in 1980. From
there, it's been inching back up.
"The reversal has taken place among all major demographic groups, and it, too, appears to be the
result of a mix of social and economic forces," the Pew report said.

One factor, according to Pew researchers, has been a wave of immigration dominated by Latin
Americans and Asians that began around the 1970s. These immigrants are more inclined to live
in multigenerational households to establish themselves after arriving here.
But the trend accelerated among native-born Americans in recent years as the Great Recession
took center stage. The Pew research showed that in 2008, 2.6 million more Americans were living
in such a household than in 2007.
Census data shows Hawaii has the largest percentage of multigenerational family households
because of the high cost of housing there and because it is a more culturally acceptable way of
life.

FORRS:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sectionfront/life/more-families-findthree-generations-living-under-the-same-roof-274785/