Marriage Day
Family arrangements in the US have become more "di...
Stephanie Coontz speaking at PopTech 2010Throughout our life's each and every one of us will endure some form of change. Adapting to change is a major part of living in our society today. The years that pass as we grow older bring about change without hesitation. With each passing year, we continue to learn new and different methods of handling situations that are presented to us. One player in the game of life that is always yielding a form of change is family. Families joined together under one roof grow, work, and learn from one another, by providing each other with support and assistance when needed. Not all families are arranged along the lines of the stereotypical mother, father, son, and daughter household model. We must accept this fact, and learn to change just as families have changed over the years in America. Stephanie Coontz discussed this particular topic, in a reading titled The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America's Changing Families. I feel that her document is a highly accurate discussion with regards to the never-ending life changes related to American families.
In 1928 a famous child psychiatrist by the name of John Watson shared his prediction of marriages in the future, saying that marriage would be dead by 1977. Some sociologists have even said that the idea of a family would be dead by the mid 1990's. Families and marriages have prevailed despite these assumptions by so-called professionals. I believe it is simple to understand why these elements have survived also, and that is because they adapted to change. Presently, marriages are more fulfilling than they were in the 1950's, partly because for most people it comes later on in life than it did in the past. Sometimes marriage is no longer expected to last "until death do us...