Family Values in Today’s Society Family Values in Today’s Society Previously family has been defined as an where one male and one female were living together, joined by the institution of marriage along with their children. The values of such families surrounded each other on the concept of sharing, love, educating and doing things together. Today the family structure has completely changed and with the changes in the structure of the family, the values of the family have even altered. This writing will focus on the changed values of today’s family and how these changes have taken place. Body In prior years families used to concentrate heavily on their children and used to follow the theory provided by Darwin. Darwin stated that a child requires the guidance and direction of his/her family in order to survive (Tattersall, 1995, p.18). According to current family values, it is not important for the child to have parents around in order to survive and develop. Previously, at least one member of the family, either the mother or the father and in most cases the mother used to be employed as a housewife and used to bring up her children. Now both the mother as well as the father has entered the world of organizational employment and instead of them caring for their children, they have delegated this task to other caretakers such as day care centers and babysitters. Once a child enters teenage in current society, he is allowed to live alone at home while his/her family works at an organization. In previous years, families did not even dare to leave their children at home in order to keep their children secure. Formerly, family values promoted limitations, power as well as family member roles. Parents and children both had separate roles, for example: mothers were expected to be at home and take care of children, while fathers were expected to earn money and provide the family with food and the children were expected to live by the rules created by the family. The family of today’s society does not promote similar roles. Mother is not seen as a person who would bring up children and stay at home, she now goes to work while her husband is probably looking after the house as well as the children. According to US Census Bureau, around one out of every three fathers whose wives are employed are working as primary care givers at home (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011, p.1). Another major change in the values of today’s family as compared to the values of previous families is their attitude towards marriage. In previous years, decision of marriage and whom to marriage was in the hands of the mothers and fathers of an individual. Today, children tend to find their own partners by first falling in love with them and then marrying them. Another change in attitude experienced by today’s family is towards the notion of marital love. Previously, when a male figure and a female figure fell in love with each other, they used to end up getting married to start a new family and raise children. Now it is not necessary that once a man and a woman falls in love ends up marrying each other, they can even live together without getting married or they separate from each other. Previous family values promoted the attitude of home being a place of shelter for a family and under this shelter, parents used to teach their children about norms and values such as the importance of becoming a law abiding citizen. In such families, parents even used to sacrifice and try not to break their marriage just for the sake and the wellbeing of their children. Today’s family values are quite different, now these values promote the importance of parenting that is shared in nature, love that is consensual in nature and urbanity. Currently sex is not limited to an affair that takes place between two married couple, it can even occur in cases where the couples are not even married. This even led to a change in how children were being brought up. Previously, children were being brought up by parents together under one roof. Now the concept of shared parenting has emerge and under this concept both of the parents, whether married to each other or not, whether under the same shelter or not are expected to look after a child at different times. Conclusion Several changes have occurred in the structure of families and these changes have led to changes in the values of family. Family values that are promoted in today’s society include: shared parenting, consensual love, flexibility in family member roles, lack of authority and urbanity. References One-Third of Fathers with Working Wives Regularly Care for Their Children, Census Bureau Reports – Children – Newsroom – U.S. Census Bureau. (2011, December 5). Census Bureau Homepage. Retrieved May 10, 2013, from http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/children/cb11-198.html Tattersall, I. (1995). The fossil trail: how we know what we think we know about human evolution. New York: Oxford University Press.