Familes and Thank Yous

From: Nichele
Date: 05 May 2004
Time: 14:49:52 -0700
Remote Name: cache-ntc-ac03.proxy.aol.com

Comments

I remember that one of the first thoughts that we as a class were challenged with was, “What is happening to families?” Professor Weigt asked us to respond to whether the family unit is falling apart or just changing. For a long time I believed that the concept of families in America was something that was falling apart. When I thought about families the Golden Age of families came to mind from the 50’s (or as the myth perceived would have me believe). As I reflect back on all of the data and research presented in this course, I now believe that families are a reflection of our society that react to social, economic, and political influences. We discussed this in great detail in class about the number of women on medication during the 50’s and the number of teen pregnancies in comparison to now days. This myth of the perfect family unit is something that I have always thought I would achieve, but in looking around society, there is no “perfect family”. My future (which hopefully will consist of having a family) will be much more grounded in reality, rather then this fairy tale notion that I have been exposed to me entire life. As many of you guys may know I have been working with Casey Family Programs (www.casey.org) with foster youth. These experiences have opened my eyes to the many different possibilities of family structure and how we have responded to the different economic and social pressures that break up a nuclear family, such as abuse. Besides these different influences on families that have changed my perceptions, I wanted to write to thank one two of our peers. Austin, thank you for always bringing up the controversial view points. You made the class very entertaining and often brought to light the view points that many think but are afraid to say because of the “political incorrectness” of it. Stephanie, thank you for always being up front and honest on all of your comments. Congratulations everyone of a successful semester, enjoy your summer!