The perception of what is deemed socially acceptable about family dynamics has evolved greatly over the last century, with the idea of what can be considered a “nuclear” family being far removed from the term’s original conception in the 1950s. When the term was first conceived, it was meant to represent the “ideal” of what a family should strive for.
The parents would be a heterosexual man and woman, with the father being the “breadwinner” who would go out and work to support the family, and the mother being a stay-at-home caretaker who would assume household duties such as cleaning, cooking, and caring for the kids. The ideal number of children would be two, with some taking it a step further viewing the ideal as a boy and girl.
Over the past century, this ideal has shifted and changed exponentially, and I would go as far as to say there is not even one singular “ideal” anymore. There are countless variations of the family unit, such as single parents, same-sex parents, grandparents taking over parental duties, domestic partnerships, and more. Additionally, strict gender roles are a concept of the past, with people able to aspire and achieve anything they desire regardless of said gender.
This can manifest in dual-earner households, in which there are two working parents. Another key facet of the change of family dynamics is the massive increase in the divorce rate of families, contributing to the emergence of the aforementioned single-parent households.
In all honesty, I do not know if I can be the one to fully gauge and judge whether this shift is good. I think that the loss of the original nuclear household ideal is a generally positive change, especially in the realm of what is acceptable in sexual orientation and in gender dynamics.
For a household to possess two fathers or to possess a working mother would have been blasphemous in the 1950s. I maintain that there should not be one set standard of what is socially acceptable in the context of our modern world, as nobody should have to conform to preconceived societal standards of what they should be.
A family can be anything you want it to be. And in our modern context, never before has been as much freedom in what can be labelled as a family. I believe there is beauty to be found in that freedom.
