Family structures represent the basic units of society. They have existed for thousands of years , which proves that they are needed. This kind of social institution is built on love and understanding . It provides its members with a feeling of safety which is essential in life. A family's main function is to give the child all he needs and bring him up under the best conditions possible. Any problem in the family organization might cause serious defects in the child's or in other words , in the future generation's development. The question is whether families can properly function close to the end of the twentieth century.
The advancement of science and technology parallel with the social movements brought about many changes in this century. In all highly developed societies a so called high rise life has emerged . It is a lifestyle which is centred almost only around working and earning money and allows practically no free time for anything else. Let me describe only those features of high rise life which are strongly related to family build - up. First of all, as I have already suggested everything have become much more money oriented. Life’s speed has accelerated. In order to keep up with the rat race one has to work harder than before, which among many other things results in less time with the family. Unlike in the previous centuries most women have to work instead of looking after the family members. Children are very often left alone and do not get the care and attention they long for. So lifestyle has been changing in such a way that the existence of the tradditional family pattern seems to be threatened. The main victim of this process is the child himself.
Childhood is a very special phase in life. During this period the child needs guidance ,caring and a lot of time with those whom he loves. It is during these formative years that he gets to know the world around him. He is exposed to a lot of influences which should be controlled by his parents so that he can learn the most out of them.
Today in an average family both parents work, usually from early early morning till late afternoon. This is why the small child is placed at a kindergarten for most of the day. By the time he is taken home he has got many things to tell his parents about. However, the parents often turn out to be too exhausted to listen. Yet, the child is promised that the following day will be spent by talking and playing. Next day the child becomes very disappointed when he realizes that his parents broke their promise. He cannot understand why. The parents, who love their child ,try to make up the lost time by giving him beautiful toys. Nevertheless , the child deep inside is not satisfied because for him nothing can substitute the parents' presence and love.
A child at a school age comprehends the events at home differently. He realizes that his parents cannot deal with him enough - of course the reader should think of a normal , average family here as well- , because they are too much occupied with their work. He feels very sorry for it.
The children's reaction in this situation has various forms. Fortunately, a high number of children make friends easily and in this way they find a substitution for the love they miss and can easily overcome their feeling of loneliness. In another group of children a very bad feeling might emerge. This feeling tells them, that nobody deals with them at home because they are not good enough for that. As a consequence they do not socialize in school either and they gradually become isolated. Isolation of this type has got different stages. If it is not so serious, then the child can easily get over his feeling of uselessnes and soon finds somebody he can confide in and can play with. A third type of children might decide to concentrate on school marks to satisfy the parents and to gain their attention. On the surface this reaction seems harmless. However, by this behaviour the child might put himself under very big pressure which is produced by the fear of failing. This often happens when the child convinces himself that he is no good , unless he is excellent in school. Of course this fear can be induced by the parents too, if they force the child to produce good results when the child has not got the ability for it.
Isolation and the constant fear of not getting good grades are the too main factors thet can cause serious defects in a child's thinking. Both conditions force him to act in a way which is unusual and strange at his age. In isolation he has nobody to share his thoughts with , so he has to process everything by himself. Under the exaggerated pressure of school there is not enough time left for him to play and to be himself. In both circumstences the period which is defined as childhood is lost. It is very easy to see that this occurence is a very harmful production of the high rise life.
Besides isolation and loneliness ther is another achivement of this century which strongly affects and easily damages many children's personality. This monster is TV .TV became a widely used baby- sitter .Mothers who cannot devote enough time to their children often make their kids sit in front of the TV regardless of the programm. Spectacles of sadism and violence surely do no good to children . These films only teach them how to be aggressive. In front of the TV children experience a lot of things which they should meet only much later.
Of course a child's development is affected by another great number of things which are not mentioned here. I only tried to concentrate on those which are characteristic and new in this era. Of course one must not forget , thet it would not be normal either , if the child got no bad or strange influence from the outside world.
Unfortunately, as papers suggest the figures of juvenile crime and childhood suicide have soared. It indicates that there is a serious deformation in the process of bringing up children. The key problem is that children are expected to behave more mature than they are at their certain age. Too much pressure is put on them both from the school and from the "rushing" family life, and it is made very hard to bear without strong links with the ones the child loves. It has to be emphasized all over again how much traditional family structures are still needed. Without their real support a both mentally and physically healthy generation cannot be brought up.
It seems that generally family institutions cannot carry out their duties today. For their main function would be to give love by hugs and kisses and not only by material possesions. Of course on an average it is not really the parents' fault. They themselves are forced into the lifestyle mankind has created for itself. Close to the end of the twentieth century many people have become too much subjected to jobs and money and as a consequence tend to overlook other very important aspects of life like that of a real , functioning family. Without this old social institution it is the future generation that is done harm to. Without proper family background children will not be able to lead a "healthy" way of life when they become adults. Their life will lack the basic needs of humanity which are love and understanding. Their society will be like of robots or computers. In order to prevent the human race from becoming a society of neatly dressed human machines much more attention should be paid on the still existant families. A thorough examination should be conducted into the problems these social institutions face today and solutions should be found pretty soon. Otherwise the human race is not going to survive for too long.
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