Family and Culture

“Family culture is a unique way that a family forms itself in terms of rules, roles, habits, activities, beliefs, and other areas” (“What is family culture?”, 2002). The perception of family is an aspect of family culture; this includes the interactions within the family and with others. Some of these perceptions can be defined as myths. A myth is a belief about someone or something that is believed to be true, but it is false, made-up, or exaggerated (S. Yu, Lecture). There are both positive and negative aspects of believing myths. Believing myths could be very dysfunctional; they can result in negative consequences that disrupt a family and they may also divert our attention away from widespread social problems that affect families. On the other hand, believing some of these myths could lead to positive outcomes as well; they could bring us together and promote social solidarity and they could also allow individuals to instill traditional values from their culture. Three popular myths include the universal, idealized nuclear family of the past, the self-reliant family, and the perfect marriage, the perfect family myths. These myths can create unrealistic expectations about what families can or should be or do; or they distort the diverse experiences of other family units (Schwartz & Scott, 2007).

The myth regarding the universal, idealized nuclear family of the past includes the definition of a nuclear family which is a family made up of a wife, husband, and their biological or adopted children. Although most people tend to characterize this family structure as always being the dominant one, that isn’t the case. The nuclear family is a recent phenomenon, the “traditional family” being the one before it. The traditional family was multigenerational, with grandparents often living with their children, usually with relatives nearby. “The “new” nuclear family has evolved in response to a number of factors: better health and longer lives, economic development, industrialization, urbanization, geographic mobility, and migration to the suburbs. These changes have resulted in physical separation of extended-family members and in on-going division of the family” (“The myth of the perfect family”, 2000). In reality, there no one single marriage and family pattern across human society. Families have never been static; they have always been changing. The “good old days” are romanticized notions(problems have always existed with families- even in the past) (S. Yu, Lecture). In today’s society, there isn’t just one type of family structure. One example for me is my mother’s family friends. In their situation, two families live in one home; their family consists of two brothers, each being married to two different women, and each family has their children. They all just live in one big home together. So the children each have two father figures and two mother figures. This isn’t only the case for this family. Many other families chose to live this way because its just a lot easier for everyone. Many people believe that this type of arrangement only existed in the past, but in reality it is still practiced nowadays as well.

The myth on the subject of the self-reliant family states that in the past and now, good families take care of themselves and are self-sufficient. In the US, individual’s achievement and self-sufficiency tend to be valued. In an ideal self-reliant family the father would be the breadwinner and would be able to supply the entire family with their basic materialistic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, etc…In reality, today, society is demanding families to work harder in order to be more self-reliant, more so than in the past.