Lesson 9. Family relations

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,

but of respect and joy in each other’s life.

Lead-in

1. Choose things you think are important in family relations and things which should not exist in family relations.

• Kindness

• Impatience

• Understanding

• Rudeness

• Selfishness

• Tenderness

• Unfriendliness

• Hypocrisy

• Insincerity

• Thoughtfulness

• Indifference

• Respect

• Openheartedness

• Love

• Trust

• Devotion

• Communication

• Being ready to help

2. Answer the following questions.

1. W hat do you think makes a family close?

2. What do you and your family like to do together?

3. What are some of your fondest memories of childhood?

4. How often does your family eat dinner together?

5. What is your favourite family tradition?

6. What are some rules you have in your family?

7. Is the discipline in your family fair?

8. Who makes the big decisions in your family?

9. Who does the household work, your father or your mother or both of them?

10. What household chores do you do?

11. Does your family ever push you to do things or act in a certain way?

12. What are the most important things your parents have taught you?

13. What do you think are the most important qualities of a good parent?

14. Do you think your parents understand you? Why or why not?

15. Do your parents trust you?

16. What do you think makes a happy family?

READING

3. Scan the texts to answer the following questions:

1. How much did the American family evolve in the last quarter of the twentieth century?

2. W hat are the tendencies in family development in Great Britain?

Text 1

The Changing Family

When people talk about the family, undoubtedly many think of the “classical” nuclear family. However, modern families only rarely are accurately characterized by stereotypical images of Dad, Mom, Sis, and Junior. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) has conducted annual nationwide surveys about families since the early 1970s. An NORC report entitled “The Emerging 21st Century American Family” (1999) indicates just how much the American family evolved in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The following are some of the major changes that have been observed:

• whereas at the beginning of the 1980s most American families included children, by the year 2000 just 38 percent of homes included children;

• although two married parents with children aptly described the typical family unit a generation ago, by the year 2000 that type of family could be found in only one in four households;

• the most typical household in the year 2000 was that of an unmarried person with no children, which accounted for one-third of all U.S. households (double the 1990 rate);

• whereas three out of four adults were married a generation ago, only slightly more than half of them were by the year 2000;

• divorce rates more than doubled between the 1960s and the 1990s;

• the number of women giving birth out of wedlock increased dramatically over the past generation, from 5 percent of births to nearly one-third of births;

• the portion of children living with a single parent increased over one generation from one out of twenty to approximately one out of five children.

In other words, those who see families only in stereotypical terms of a mother, father, and two-plus children have a very inaccurate image of families.

Text 2