Another drama concluded, so....... weird ending but okay larh acceptable =D at least not so clear cut, the right people, the wrong time/era, 两个对的人却在错的时候爱了一回
Today I shall talk about family.

Family might be a common word, one that primary school children would learn as married couple living with their unmarried children in harmony, or Father, Mother, I Love You (FAMILY). However, in Sociology, there are many different perspectives to look at this term – Family. The above definition of family is a nuclear family.

Functionalists claim that a family could provide some basic functions, that might dysfunction if roles are not distributed well, and there are also other perspectives of family such as Conflict, where there are bound to have power plays and domination in a family like violence, favoritism, etc, and also Interactionist, which questions us what exactly is the term family.

Viewing family at the conflict perspective, family is a perpetuator of inequality where it transmits the social class from one generation to another. The ascribed status is very strong, and thus the only way to have vertical mobility is for the older generation to achieve it, and then passed on to the next generation. This is again, a harsh reality. It is rather scary for the younger generation to live carrying a burden that the generations and generations before left behind. One wrong move, and the efforts of all the forefathers might just crumble.

Viewing family at the Interactionist perspective, what exactly makes a family? We now have cases of single-parent, Serial Monogamy (Repetitively getting divorced and re-marry), Polygamy (Polyandry – one woman many husband, Polygyny – one man many wives), commitment are getting rarer and rarer. I’ve seen primary school kids mentioning about ‘letting go of love’, and other stuffs like that, and it shows only one think, Serial Monogamy is encouraged. Then again, yes, a happy divorced is better than struggling in marriage, and in my family tradition, if an apple is rotten, throw it away, rather this way then let the whole body collapse. Harsh, but practical.

Serial Monogamy is getting more and more common, to the sense that, perhaps, its effect would not be as bad as we know now, in the near future. Fatherly figure can always be substituted by peers, by seniors, by referent stars, celebrities, books, online info, the point being, our kids in the future would not treat this as a serious matter anymore. This is sad, and yes, because it is a generation kindda thing, children will have the image that Serial Monogamy is acceptable, and common, so there will be decreasing number of committed relationships in the future.

Then what is love? Is it supposed to be one-sided, a great feeling of commitment to another person? This seemed to have its definition blurred as well. Then what does marriage signify? Other than housing privileges and other political issues, what does it mean to be married? The commitment could be so easy broken, what is the point? Rather single than divorced?

Now we look at the child at Interactionist perspective. In many cases, the child actually symbolises a hope, a source of encouragement for widows/widowers. However, as a single parent having to fulfil both parents role, there might be role strains. Hard for the parent, but looking at the bright side, the child is not too pitiful, he/she has full attention and love from the parent, who would be committed to bring out the best in them.

So actually, to looka t things in another angle, things weren't too bad, many people ive seen growing up and strong despite family circumstances. Other than biological parents, I'm sure everyone has social family, and spiritual family. Similarly, some social family do change from time to time, do sort of 'divorce' and 're-marry', so if we were to take human race as a big big family, single parent kids do not necessarily has less pillars of support, as long as they are able to trust, or influence, some other pillars, and have the courage and openness to do so. That's what I ignorantly feel, mostly because I'm rather 'perfect' in a sense I've got all that I've needed, so lots of things I have to live it through other people, and learn from each one of them. Really curious about stuffs like how and why people get separated and all, but they're all rather sensitive, and I wouldn't know how to react too if they were to answer. So.. yea, i'll just observe..... and think.... and research... and learn...