What Are The Rules Again?

Marrying at younger ages, having children early, and socializing within immediate family and neighbors was not something that was new to the working class of the time. What was new was the economic boom. Companies, industrial plants, were paying higher taxes and due to the large increase in funds of the company, they shared the wealth with the workers, from CEO's to janitors, everyone got a cut. There were tax breaks for couples that would marry. This increase in wages produced a more comfortable lifestyle for the working class. They were able to play out what they thought to be a middle class lifestyle. The working class could now afford to by a home, subsidized housing, and have luxuries that they couldn't afford before. Mothers could stay at home with their children.

The idea of the family with the male provider, female homemaker, and children staying at home and going to school was first seen in the nineteen twenties. Before this, there was child labor and many economic concerns. The new ideal dissolved when the Great Depression hit at the beginning of nineteen thirty. People were scared and upset. Violence in families went up and families took a great hit. They were ripped apart and they had to go to find work. World War II managed to bandage the economy and families were again desired, but not everyone was quick to return to this way of living. In the later nineteen forties times were still rough and married couples had to find roomies to make it and this created a lot of tension. Couples wanted their own separate lives where they weren't told what to do. The new families of the nineteen fifties seemed to be the remedy for the problem, a safe happy place within your own little family. Society had seen the working class family structure as a return to tradition and conformity and so the trend began.

As the jolt begins, it also ends. In the nineteen sixties, divorce picked up, couples were having less babies, and individuals were waiting longer to get married. More people were having babies out of wedlock and some couples just living together instead of getting married. Attention was diverted to protesting against the Vietnam War, wardrobe, music, dancing and psychedelics, the "free love" era.

As in the past, unexpected events occur to change trends in living. I can see no quick fix to families, not that they even need intervention. The nineteen fifties was not the time of beautiful families, but rather groups in seclusion and fit into tight roles. If people want to go back to the family of the nineteen fifties, they would have to take everything that came with it, the unfeeling father, the happy obeying housewife, and rigidly monitored children who were not related to. Another thing to think about when assuming that if we could just live like they did and everything would fix itself is that the economic situation would have to improve. Families today cannot support a family of four with one income. The working class family was thought to know all the rules to having a wonderful family, but there is no perfect recipe for the ideal family. A dash of money and a pinch of middle class living moved this lifestyle in and when the cake cooled, not everyone wanted a piece.

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