Gunn 1

Ashlyn Gunn
Carugno
Period 7
2/17/14
Failing Families: From to Fifties to Now
Listen! You can hear your brother telling you, Pops home! The heavenly smell of
Moms home cooked meal wafts into your nose as your loving father walks through the door. He
kisses your mother on the cheek then bends down to hug you and your brother. Father reminds
you both to help your mother set the table. You and your brother work together to get the job
done. As you all sit down to eat, you talk about what you did that day. After dinner, you and your
brother help put the dishes in the sink. Mom sits down in the living room to knit with Pop right
beside her reading up on the daily news. Your brother rushes up stairs to finish his homework so
he can watch the Ed Sullivan show later with your parents. You scurry up after him because you
know you ought to do the same. Isnt life just swell? Listen! Can you hear the 50s calling?
This presented scenario depicts a typical day for a kid in a nuclear family in the 1950s.
Since then the United States has experienced major changes in its society. Many of the things
this family did are not at all what were accustomed to in this day and age. The nuclear family is
a major component of society that has changed for the worse from the 50s until now. There are
many presumably irreversible ways that the traditional family unit has transformed into what we
call it today. But, where exactly did we start? And precisely where have we plummeted off of the
cliff?
The first way that the nuclear family has changed is by which people are in the family
unit. Defining a nuclear family in the 1950s was easy: it was a married couple and their
Gunn 2

biological children. Today a family unit could truly mean anything. Some examples of modern
day typical families are adoptive parents, people living with relatives other than their parents,
and single parents. Having a single parent, or two single parents, is not typically a bad thing.
Divorce rates over the past couple of decades have skyrocketed. There were about 2,300 divorces
in 1950 as opposed to in 2000 where there were 4,100. (Doc 1) This dramatic rise in divorces
caused the number of nuclear families to drastically decrease. Also, this rise made it more
acceptable to live in a non-nuclear family. Thus piling on to the list of factors depleting the
traditional family unit.
Families in the 1950s were very close-nit. Back then children grew up with strong
family values and two parents to look after them. Many people remember their sheltered yet
contented lives. One woman says that when she was very young, she had wished her parents
would get divorced because they never went out and did anything like her friends who had
divorced parents. However, she does remember spending a lot of time with her family and
realizes that her wish for their divorce was silly and childish. She is glad that her family stuck
together then and still has today. (Shapiro) There was less crime due to this close family unit.
The lack of the nuclear family in todays society plagues us with growing juvenile crime rates. In
1995, 2,085,000 juveniles, 18 years old and younger, were arrested. This number is colossal
compared to the measly 208,000 arrested in 1950. (Doc 7) So, there were ten times the amounts
of youths arrested when the idea of nuclear families had essentially dwindled. Rises in juvenile
delinquency are said to be accredited to insufficient punishment by parents. (Wardle) Children
that lack parental guidance are my more susceptible to gang relations and crime. The fall of the
nuclear family means the rise of crime in the younger generations.
Gunn 3

The reason that families have become so distant is no mystery. There is no
communication in todays society between parents and children. In the 1950s there were less
distractions and excuses to not speak with your family. The children of the fifties werent raised
to ignore their parents either. With the advent of technological changes such as home computers,
iPods, iPads, mp3 players, DVDs, CDs, Skype, varied television programming, and cell phones
there are too many other more interesting things to do instead of being around ones family.
Children today are too busy doing all of these things and more that people forget about the
quality time that a child needs to spend with their parents in order to have a strong bond with
them. Today, the nuclear family is more like a few people that live together and occasionally
speak to each other because they are too busy doing other things.
Families on television throughout the years have reflected the values of their time period.
The new technology of the 1950s brought television families top life. Shows back then always
had a problem for the main character then a solution with a moral explanation from their parents.
Perfect examples of this would be shows such as Father Knows Best, Dennis the Menace,
and Leave it to Beaver. (N/A) Todays TV shows however are vastly more diverse and
controversial. One woman says she is afraid to give her children the remote control because of
what they might see. The images that kids today could be exposed to will probably affect them
on a long term basis. They are likely to see various forms of nudity and simulated sexual acts,
grisly horror scenes and graphic violence, accompanied by horrific language. (Harrell) Parents
today are worried for their children to watch TV because there are not many wholesome shows
left that depict loving nuclear families anymore. No values of the 50s have persevered
throughout the years on television.
Gunn 4

Over all, the downfall of the nuclear families of the 1950s has brought us to being
strangers in our own families today. A major component of society that has changed for the
worse from the 50s until now is the nuclear family. We are not used to doing the same things
families of the fifties did anymore because parents are too busy worrying about other things and
children are too busy on their electronics. Who is in a nuclear family has changed because of
divorces and other factors. This leads to the raising of juvenile crime rates. Kids that dont have
parents are more susceptible to joining gangs to make up for the lost feeling of family. The
values in nuclear families used to be displayed by our television programs, but now all of TVs
moral values in its shows are all but lost. It is no wonder that families today have separated
within themselves.