Page 13-14 (Myths about the American family):
“Myth One: The typical American family consists of a white man, married to a white wife not employed outside the home, and several children, all living in a single family house with a green grass lawn. For almost fifty years Norman Rockwell’s portraits of the American family celebrating this myth regularly graced the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.
“Myth Two: The typical American family of our forefathers consisted of an extended family with parents, children, and grandchildren living and working together as a happy, self-reliant unit.
“Myth Three: The typical American family today consists of a working Mom, happily balancing a successful career with a meaningful relationship with her husband or ‘significant other,’ along with devotion to her children’s growth and well-being.
“Myth Four: Poor families don’t measure up and consist of a Welfare Mom watching soap operas while collecting government checks, entertaining male friends, and ignoring her children.”
Page 21 (Today’s family realities):
“Even if starting today the stork delivered every newborn to a stable nuclear family and into a community where divorce, parental deaths and desertions miraculously disappeared, millions of children whose parents already have separated will spend part of their childhood in a single parent family. In 2003, almost 20 million, 27 percent of all children, lived with one parent. Although 70 percent of children lived in two-parent families, approximately 25 percent of those lived with a stepparent.
“Furthermore, in most households with children, both adults are employed. Less than one-third of two-parent families with children have a stay-at-home mom. The disparity between today’s reality and the myth becomes even greater when the myth’s components include being white and living in a single family home. Thus, any approach to family and neighborhood support today must include the reality that few of today’s families resemble the [Norman] Rockwell myth, [an idealized portrait of a small town couple with two children and a stay-at-home mom].”
Copyright © 2008 by Transaction Publishers. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
