Even though the divorce rate in Canada is continuously increasing, this does not change the amount of love one receives from their mother or father. When couples divorce, they are ending their marriage, not their family. The children will still have a father and mother they can rely on. The children still have parents they can love and whom will love them in return. In other divorce cases, one party may decide to leave the other because they are being abused physically or emotionally or one party may have an alcohol or drug problem. There are numerous reasons as to why one may decided to end a marriage but does this mean that families are deteriorating? There are many single parents who love and care for their children, is this not classified as a family? If a child is better off without his or her mother or father because they cause harm to the children, does this mean they are no longer a family? In my eyes, whether or not both set of parents are living together and as long as the children are loved and cared for, it is categorized as a family.
Since 1970 the number of people getting married has decreased. The number of people living alone between the ages of fifteen and thirty-four has more than doubled. We are now living in a time where women do not get married in their early twenties. Women wish to enjoy their prime to further their education, travel the world or even further their career before starting a family. For example, my sister is twenty-nine and is still not married. She is furthering her education at Harvard University and has traveled all over the world doing volunteer work. She has every intention of getting married but has many things she would like to accomplish before doing so. Women and men may be getting married at later times in their lives, but this does not mean that families will deteriorate, it just simply means it will happen at a later point in time. Many couples are also choosing to live together and have children without getting married. If these couples were to marry, what would change? Their attitude towards one another would be the same, they would still be living under the same roof raising their children together, loving their children and loving each other; they would still be a family. The only sole difference would be they would be their relationship would be labeled as a marriage. Label or no label, does it make them any less or more of a family?
Canada reflects a diverse multicultural society; families of different ethnicity weave together to form the society we live in. Each culture has their own values, beliefs and morals of what a family should be and how they should live. For example, an East Indian family is classified as an extended family. Grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles may all live under the same roof and all have equal say in the children’s upbringing. Even if they do not live under the same roof, Aunt’s are considered to be second mothers to their nieces and nephews and have equal say in their upbringing. There is also a tremendous amount of support whether it be financial or emotional from each member of the family.
