Family Theory : Family Development And Life Cycle Theory

Throughout history, women have been groomed to be the best they can domestically. To place them in the man’s position of being the sole provider of the family seems irrational at best. Although the natural gender roles may be overpowering during the start of having a family, through time duties between husband and wife, regarding domestic life, tend to balance out once financial security is established. Like many major changes, it starts out bumpy but eventually a solution is found and both husband and wife find their “happy-medium.”

One thing that almost everybody will have to deal with at least once in their lifetime is parenting. In parenting, both parents are needed to make the job easier on themselves, their marriage and their child. In the essay The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How It Was. by Hope Edelman, Edelman tells her experience with co-parenting. Edelman, along with many women, initially believed that co-parenting was possible. She soon figured out, however, that it was not a realistic goal. Some points that Edelman hits in the essay are the gender roles and societal expectations in parenting, being the nurturer versus being the provider, and how poor communication can ruin

Experiential family theory is about the experiences that a family goes through in therapy and what it symbolizes to them. Experiential family theory is also well known as symbolic experiential family theory because the theory is about what the family takes out of the experience and what they use to describe their family. According to Smith (1998), the founder, Carl Whitaker, felt that it was the therapist’s responsibility to create these experiences in the sessions to help the family grow. Carl Whitaker accomplished this with impulse and creativity. He understood the family unit and knew that families could be cruel, but he believed the family had the ability to restore their family unit (Percy, 1990). The theory is not a traditional one,

Women for years have been automatically given the role of the domestic housewife, where their only job is to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Men have usually taken the primary responsibility for economic support and contact with the rest of society, while women have traditionally taken the role of providing love, nurturing, emotional support, and maintenance of the home. However, in today’s society women over the age of sixteen work outside of the home, and there are more single parent households that are headed by women than at any other time in the history of the United States (Thompson 301.)

Fathers today spend more time taking care of their children compared to previous generations. Even with these gains, today's mothers devote almost double the time that fathers do for child care.[2] While every situation is different, in most families there

The job of child rearing is widely regarded as a maternal responsibility for most cultures

Whether it is the past or the present, there have always been gender roles in society. In most homes, it is the woman’s responsibility to take care of the house. This includes cleaning, meal preparations, raising and taking care of the children as well as the husband. Compared to the men who take care of the more physical activities, such as yard work. It was known throughout many years that it was a woman’s responsibility to stay in the house while the man would go out and look for work to provide money for his family. Although the intensity of gender roles has changed, it still exists.

According to Richard Charles (2001) “the effectiveness of family systems theory rests not much on empirical research but on clinical reports of positive treatment outcomes, the personal benefits experienced by the families that underwent this kind of treatment, and the elegance of Bowen’s theory” (p. 279). Bowen’s family systems theory views the family as an emotional unit and is a theory of human behavior. Systems thinking are used to describe the complex interactions in the unit. However, the client’s ability to differentiate himself/herself from the family of origin is the basis for Bowen’s family systems theory. In addition, the primary focus for growth within the emotional system is differentiation of self. Differentiation of self

This reading greatly ties into our discussion on the politics of housework between parents. During the early years of being married, some couples do not feel the burden of caring for a family because they chose not to have children at that point in time. As Alix Shulman describes in her passage, she and her husband were very content during that time, often shopping, cooking, and spending long walks together on the weekends in Central Park. They wouldn’t need to worry about cleaning too often because their apartment was modest and not too large for a family of two. She notes that during that period of their life, their domestic was beautifully uncomplicated. Suddenly down the road, a couple years later, the couple found themselves distressed when they had their son and daughter. Life became more complicated and at times, “impossible” according to Alix. The reason was that both Alix and her husband automatically accepted the traditional sex roles set in place by society. Alix left her job and became a stay-at-home mom, while her husband was working all day in the office. Alix was used to interacting with people during the day and having a life outside the office as well as the home, but now she was confined to the company of her children, who were preschoolers at the time. Alix was upset because she felt as though her husband’s life changed little when the children were born while her life became 1000x more complicated. She was working more than a 9-5 day job, and she didn’t get compensated for the work either. Preparing six meals a day for different people, spending several hours cleaning a mess that would remain unclean within the next couple hours, due to her children playing, and laundry that was originally done a couple times a month, now is due on a daily basis. Alix never got a break. She once enjoyed reading, but now she can’t even have a private mental life without the constant

Parenting involves a lot more than just fathering or mothering a child. Often times, genetics don’t play a role in parenting at all anymore. Someone who parents is merely a person who takes on the responsibility of raising a child from a young age to adulthood. This can be through birth, adoption or foster care. Due to the large scale shift in society and offspring over time, I will be using the term “caregiver” to signify any person who consistently cares for a child throughout the rest of this paper. Regardless of the title used, each person ultimately performs the same duties involved with parenting and it is no task easily achieved.

The mother and father are the primary caregivers of their children and equally make decisions about the family. The family’s circle of the support is their extended family and

Bennetts places blame on culture. “...but also the disproportionate burdens imposed by a culture that still regards the raising of children as the mother’s responsibility”(42). Edelman does this by placing blame on husbands. “...I felt this way because he was the husband and his earning power currently eclipsed mine, his career took took precedence, and I had to pick up the household slack, to the detriment of my own wanting career, or in addition to it” (54). In both articles the authors place blame on everything except women. Bennetts and Edelman would agree that it is not women’s fault. Women have always been labeled as caregivers because of their nature and men have always been the working ones because they are known to be stronger. The authors would disagree in this situation because one believes it is the man’s fault women are known as caregivers, but the other author believes it is a culture problem.

As a result of the increase of pregnancy rates in the 1950s there was a decrease of employment. Instead of going to work, mothers cared for their children at homes. This reinforced the roles of women as wives and mothers. Today, women are now more liberated from these roles. That being the case Author Natalie Angier, of the article, “The Changing American Family, explains, 62 percent of the public, and 72 percent of adults under 30, view the ideal marriage as one in which husband and wife both work and share child care and household duties…” This quote demonstrates that majority of women are no longer the housemakers of the family. The twenty-first century women are through with stereo gender jobs and proved to be a family's breadwinner. In the 1950s, Author Brigid Schulte, of the article, “Unlike in the 1950s, there is no ‘typical’ U.S. family today,” points out, “....in the 1950s, 65 percent of all children under 15 were being raised in traditional breadwinner-homemaker families. Today, only 22 percent are.” This quote supports the belief that both husbands and wives should share the responsibilities of supporting their families with financial income and responsibilities in the

Compare with the unit we learned. Nowadays, mother is no longer to take the primary role. Take care of children is not only mother’s responsibility. The interviewee said he also helps his wife to take care of the baby. Since mother’s role has changed, so has the father’s. Males and females share the housework. Couples play equal role in the family. The book said family time is very important for the development of a child. The interviewee spend an hour with his child before he goes to work. Also when he go home he spend 5 hours with his child. In addition, one of the most useful ways grandparents help their children is to take care of the child. They provide childcare for their children. However, interviewee’s wife stop working for a year

While studying family systems theories over the past two semesters, I discovered, that all methods demonstrate validity and success, some models speak more thoroughly to my therapeutic style. The methods that I related to the most are Solution-Focused and Strategic Therapy. Both techniques focus on the client’s strengths and not the pathology of the problem. MRI strategic practices and techniques influenced the creators of Solution-Focused Therapy, Steve De Shazer, and his colleagues. Both approaches have the ability to address family and individual problems in a brief time frame.