The British Family

Family plays a very important part in our life. The family gives us love, care, emotional, psychological & financial support. If we have problems we usually turn to our family for help.

Families are divided into several types. They are the nuclear family, the extended family, single parent family & live – in relationship.

A nuclear family usually consists of 2 parents & sometimes children. An extended family usually consists of several generations living together. A single parent family consists of a father or a mother & children. A live – in relationship denotes the kind of relationship when 2 people live together without been officially married.

Many people say that the family’s unit in GB is in crisis. Because the number of one parent families is constantly increasing, the divorce rait is getting higher & higher, more & more people leave together before marriage & there is a lack of discipline within the family.

Nowadays in GB it’s more sociable acceptable to have alternative life styles, it’s easier to remove oneself from an unhappy family situation. Divorce is no longer seen as taboo. One – parent families are common, children have more freedom. They start their private life at 18 years old & go further. People test out their relationships before marriage & there’s greater acceptance of homosexual relationships. The role of women in the family has also changed. It’s not uncommon to find that the mother is the main breadwinner in the family. But there are still problems for women who want to have a work, because of the difficulties of combining the mother role with the demands of a career, women’s work also tends to be low - paid & irregular.

A "typical" British family used to consist of mother, father and two children. But in recent years there have been many changes in family life. For example, since the law made it easier to get a divorce, the number of divorces has increased. That's why 24% of British children live with only one parent, usually their mother. The contemporary British child doesn't have a lot of companionship from brothers and sisters, because the average family has only one or two children. Most British children live with their parents at least until they finish school at the age of 17 or 18. Then many go away to college, leaving some parents sad and lonely in their empty nest and others enjoying their release from parental responsibilities. But many adults stay with their parents during their college years or return home after graduation. Today's parents cannot

even be sure that their married children have moved out forever. After a divorce they may return to the parental home temporarily or even on a long-term basis.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14