Introduction
A family is made up of members who are closely related like a father, mother and their children. There are two types of families which are nuclear family and extended family.
The nuclear family begins from the father followed by the mother and then the children while the extended family begins from the grandfather down to the youngest grandchild in the family. As it has always been known, the family is the basic and the smallest unit of a society. This is the main reason why experts have put it that the weakening of families is the main cause of the problems that are in the current society.
It would be impossible to ignore this naked truth because each and every individual knows that the society is faced by problems that are brought about by families. There are some changes that have occurred in families since 1960’s and they have greatly contributed to the problems in the society (Bunson, 2008).
Discussion
The main factor that has contributed greatly to the weakening of the families is the neglect of duties by parents. Most of this duties neglected by parents are nurturing their children to be responsible and ready to face the future wisely and correctly. This issue arose in 1960’s where both parents could go to work so as to be able to earn enough income to run the family. The cost of living had increased rapidly and this urged for more income.
Unlike in the past years where the wives were left to do household chores and look after the children, they began working so as to earn income. Although the parents could get time to educate and mature up children after work, the time was less and could only mean less done towards the children.
Also due to the increased cost of living in the 1960’s, women began running single families as they would be in a position to work and get income thus enable them to cater for their children’s needs. The single families contributed greatly to weakening of families as most of the single ladies had minimal time to educate their children (Marien, 1993).
Another cause of the weakening of families which has brought about the many problems in the society is the dedication of duties to the unqualified and uneducated personnel. This arose in 1960’s when women began working thus resulting to employment of house-helps. The house-helps could not play the roles of the parents since most of them were young and had never run their own families.
Children were therefore not educated and helped to mature up to make them responsible and ready to face the future. In the single families children had to be brought up by house helps since most of the times their mothers are at work.
These changes in roles from parents to house helps is exactly what is happening today and it is greatly weakening families and thus leading to problems in the society. Also in some cases, the older children are left to look after the young ones. This is another change of roles that is also contributing to the weakening of families.
This is seen clearly in the families found in urban areas where house helps are in high demand. For instance in case study of London, the capital city of United Kingdom, that was conducted in 2007 it was found out that two thirds of the families have house helps (Atkinson, 2007).
Conclusion
To strengthen families and reduce the problems in the society, parents must dedicate more time to interact with their children so as to educate them and pass the right morals to them. House helps should be obliged to do other household chores and not to look after children. The government can also pass laws that can help to strengthen families hence eradicate the problems in the current society.
References
Atkinson, P. G. (2007). A Study of Our Decline. Washington, DC: Lulu.com.
Bunson, M. T. (2008).Our Sunday visitor’s catholic almanac. London: Our Sunday Visitor.
Marien, M. N. (1993) Future Survey Annual 1992: A Guide to the recent literature of trends, forecasts, and policy proposals. New York, NY: Transaction Publishers.