The Changing American Family By Herbert S. Klein

1. The American family has changed so much over the past 40 years. Herbert S. Klein has written an essay on this matter titled “The Changing American Family”. He brings up a lot of interesting facts about changes in fertility and marriage in the population from the colonial period up to today. One major change that was discussed was birth outside of marriage. Less than 10 percent of all births were outside of marriage in the colonial period. By the end of the century more than half of all births were outside of marriage. This is an obvious dramatic increase and a major concern. This impacts everybody in a different way. For the child, by the parents having a child outside of marriage this increases the possibility of the child not having a
Too much for some. Just knowing what kind of responsibility they have to take care of all by them self can be overwhelming. There has been a rise of outside marriage births all over the world. Another major change that was discussed was the dramatic decrease in household mothers. Traditionally the males were the ones who worked to provide the necessities for their families while the mother stays home to parent, cook and clean. Since there has been an increase in births outside marriages, single mothers have taken the mother’s and father’s role by working to provide for the children then having to come home to parent, cook and clean. But even when there are births while married only about 36 percent of mothers stay at home with their children that are under the age of 6. The impact this creates is a more stressful environment for the children. Both parents always working, less time is being spent parenting and bonding with the children. For both the mother and father this is not easy on them either. They are working to make ends meet and being able to provide the children with the best possible future. Let’s face it, money is one of if not the most important thing for a