Family Responsibilities

What do Families provide?

Everything a child needs such as material and emotional needs alongside teaching them things.

What are the material needs?

A clean home with warmth and shelter, the right clothes for the weather and food, drink, toys, books and healthcare.

What are the emotional needs?

A stable family environment, love and encouragement and praise and discipline.

What do they need to teach?

Good behaviour, social skills and communication skills and pre-reading skills and intellectual skills.

What do most families do?

In most families, some things are more one parent’s job than the others, and some things are shared. More parents share work and caring responsibilities. In many families, both parents work-it’s harder to get by on just one parent’s wage than it was years ago.

What is the traditional family role?

The mum looked after the house and children while dad went out to work although some families still do things this way.

What is role reversal?

Some families split the roles in the exact opposite of the traditional way. The dad stays at home with the kids while the mum goes out to work.

What happens to children whose parents come from different racial backgrounds?

Because Britain is multicultural society children who come from those families will grow up learning about two different cultures. Families from different cultures may have different ways of bringing up kids and sharing household responsibilities.

How have family structures changed?

There are more divorces than there were 50 years ago as it’s easier to get divorced now. 50 years ago there was shame in having a baby out of wedlock but now many children are born into single-parent families and unmarried two-parent families. 50 years ago, hormonal contraceptives (e.g. the Pill) weren’t widely available however, families today can plan when to have children and how many. Fewer people are getting married these days and more women are choosing to have a career before having kids.