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THE CHANGING SHAPE OF THE FAMILY

We used to think of the family as a group of people who live together and are related to one another. Sociologists divided all families into two general types: the nuclear family — parents and their children living to­gether, and the extended family — two or even more generations of par­ents and their children living together. But in the modern society the shape of the family is constantly modifying. There is a profound change in the way we think about the family, getting a broader idea of what the term really means. In fact, 72 percent of adults now agree that there is more than one way to define the term "family", 99 percent say families have greatly changed compared to a generation ago, and 70 percent of those polled say the family has changed for the worse though the family life has changed for the better. From the statistics and the real life, one clear truth comes through: the family will never be the same. Modern families’ are building ties of love, commitment, and kinship in ways both new and old.

Lots of families have parents divorced but they still function as a fam­ily. Being legally separated they often live in separate rooms of the same house. Both parents take equal care of their children. They take the chil­dren out in turn, they have family meals together once in a while, they try to spend Christmas together, and either parent pays for the children's educa­tion. Such parents insist that they are a family and their way of life gives to their children the sense of security and the feeling that they are equally loved by both parents.

Women in our society tend to fight for equal rights with men: many of them take several degrees of higher education, climb to the top of the career ladder, and keep their own businesses. Very often those women reveal the wish to have a family when they are not quite young and have no potential partners on the horizon. So, being financially secure, having their own houses and businesses they either give the birth to a child or adopt one. They consider their families are complete. They say there are no quarrels in their families because they have to make all decisions alone, they don't rely on anyone else and they don't depend on anyone else. They can devote all their love to their children only. They insist that they are having happy families.

It is becoming more and more popular, especially in America, a fam­ily with a surrogate. Some families with no chance to have their own children decide to find a surrogate to carry their child for them. The par­ents usually keep in close contact with the surrogate during the preg­nancy. They often even assist the surrogate in the delivery. In many fam­ilies the surrogate becomes a close friend and they may call her an aunt. They all consider themselves a family.

In the recent decades a term "a patchwork family" came into general use. This is a reorganized family, or in other words the same sex mar­riage. There are lots of controversial arguments for and against patch­work families these days, but the only one thing is clear: they arc our reality and they are not something new.

In the times before the invention of antibiotics (1955) the mortality rate in Europe was so high that losing a parent during the childhood was a much more frequent thing than now. Some women joined their efforts in bringing up their children together, and that was a very common matter. We tend now to believe that this is a very modern trendy thing to do, be­cause all the media is talking about it as if it was a new invention but it is not. Many people continue thinking that homosexuality is about nothing but sex, considering it to be merely a sexual perversion. The reality is that homosexuality is multidimensional, and it is much more about love and attraction than it is about sex. Then why two loving people of the same sex cannot raise children in their loving environment?

There are families with two mothers having their children with the help of donor sperm, or two foster fathers bringing up adopted children. They all consider themselves happy and completed families.

Some people claim that the family is a unit of two — a husband and a wife. They believe that raising children is difficult, without children both the husband and the wife can focus on each other, they have more time and energy to devote to their careers, to friends, to their own parents. They can travel more often and have fun together. They say that love and commitment is what makes you a family. You don't need children to have love and commitment. And if you don't have love and commitment, children won't magically prove your relations in the family. Don't you think so?

Vocabulary Notes

a career ladder – карьерная лестница

multidimensional - многомерный

 to define the term - определять

a broad idea – в широком смысле

a sexual perversion – сексуальное извращение

to make a decision – принять решение

trends - тенденции

the sense of security – чувство безопасности

What is the main idea of the text and the key points of the passages?

4. Write down all the words referring to such issues as:

  a) to fight for equal rights, b) nuclear and extended families, c) surrogate in the delivery.

Read out the sentences they are used in and translate them into Russian.

Look back at the text, find out and write down the answers to the following questions.

- What is going on with the shape of the family in the modern city?

- What are the results of social polls on the issue "the family"?

- Why do separated parents often call themselves a family?

- Do you agree with the idea expressed by some single women brin­ging up their children that their families are complete?

- What is the origin of patchwork families?

- Comment on the statement "the family is a unit of two — a hus­band and a wife".

6. Give Russian equivalents to the following words and expressions:

nuclear family, profound change, change for the worse, patchwork family, career ladder.