Things seem to be getting weirder and worse, but aren't really new. Wondering if you guys have info or input. A blog I'd been following seems to sum it up- the blogger posts 'question of the day' and this particular question was 'Is Family even relevant in today's society?' Examples of what I've seen, in no particular order: Emancipation- while details vary, it looks like every state in the U.S. allows this practice. Even without a reason, kids can become pseudo-adults and live on their own. Dear Abby's daughter, who now writes the column, jumped on the bandwagon of 'getting new families.' If your own family is less than perfect, dump 'em and claim another 'family.' Parents move, and leave their kids behind. If the kids don't want to move, they instead 'stay' with 'friends.' Plus examples I've read about here and on other forums, like you might lose custody of your child if you make him go to church, school teachers tell you what you can and cannot feed your children, neighbors call police or CPS if your preteens play alone in the back yard, etc. What's going on- and how/when did it start?
Throughout history we can see examples of how the family unit has broken down. The reasons were many fold. The bigest reason was war, and on a smaller scale money. We can all understand what happens to families in war, and we've all seen how money can ruin a family as well. But today's new war is communications, and whether we like to see it or not, we as a country have become filthy rich. Even our poor have automobiles, cell phones, and computers. The only way we are poor is in comparison to each other. Being poor lent itself to drawing families together. As we faired better we spread out and away from each other. It is sad though.
It 'is' so sad Values have changed considerably, its a 'me' society now and I doubt we will ever get back what we had not that I had it - but I know it existed and was good for all Plus the 'influences' are vast too, not good influences, we have a throw away society now and that includes - marriage
Nail and head @Ina I. Wonder , this couldn't be more true.....and also as @Patsy Faye stated this has now become the selfish society...it's all about me...not anyone else, just 'ME"......the entitled society... snowflakes who believe everything should be geared towards their own selfish interests, with no thought of the effects on other people, whether family or the wider society
Yes, there is some crazy stuff going on. A lot of it has always been going on, the difference being that it has been normalized. I have known kids who were left to live with another family when their own family moved away, the most common reason being that they didn't want to change schools, but that was looked down upon as being weird or dysfunctional. I was listening to a Christian radio station a few months ago. It was a call-in show hosted by some Christian psychologist. The caller was a woman who wasn't happy with her husband, but wanted to stay together for the children. The Christian psychologist recommended that she leave her husband if she was unhappy in her marriage, saying that the children could only be happy if she was happy. Now, I don't doubt that there are some people who should probably divorce but, in this case, there was no discussion of abuse and, more importantly, this psychologist only heard one side and, at that, on a call-in radio show. It was too clear that marriage was not a very important thing to this Christian psychologist. A lot of things always come back to an agenda in my mind, but I do think that much of this is planned. It's by no accident that schools are trying very hard to usurp the roles of parents in pretty much every way, even to a point of providing meals, with some schools providing two or even three meals a day, including days when school is not in session. Schools are filling up any time that children might have to be with their children with after-school and week-end sports programs and other activities. Here in Millinocket, a child has to choose between going to church on Sunday or participating in the school's sports programs because they schedule practices on Sunday mornings. A friend of mine had a daughter who was then in junior high school, and a cheerleader. She came home from a football game at 3:00 in the morning one day, so her mother grounded her. A school counselor actually called to tell her mother that she couldn't do that because cheerleading was very important, and she needed to be able to attend the games, and tried to make it sound like that was a mandate. My friend told me that when she went in to talk to her, she found that this counselor looked to be about nineteen. We have government programs encouraging children to turn in their parents. I can remember when that very thing was use as an example of how horrible it would be to live under a communist dictatorship. Things are indeed crazy. I read in the paper a few months ago that a family had their child removed from their home because she was allowed to walk to the playground by herself, and this was a playground that was literally across the street. Other families have had their kids removed because they let them walk to school. We walked to school all the time, and it was a mile and half. We walked home through the woods. Yes, there are real dangers, but government interference in families is the greater danger, I think.