Effects of Time
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Today's American traditional family greatly differs from that of the American family in the 50's. Not only is marriage looked upon in a different light, but many factors have changed the ideal image of the word family itself. The effects that time has had on the American family have led to certain concepts being more widely accepted now than in earlier days. What was once a narrow-minded generation is now a new era in which divorce, gay a lesbian families, cohabitation, single parenthood, and children born out of wedlock, are presently viewed as common concepts.
Marriage today is looked at by an overwhelming population in today's generation, not as "forever", but rather as a breakable promise of the union between two people that can be ended simply with a divorce. Most couples are young when they decide to get married, and a lot of couples choose to get married for the wrong reasons. One of these reasons may be due to circumstances such as teen pregnancy. Many couples who look towards marriage as an escape route need to weigh their odds rather than concentrate solely on the highlights. "The problem of marriage today is that we imagine that its benefits have been offset by social arrangements, such as welfare payments, community tolerance, and professional help for children that make marriage unnecessary" (Wilson 376). With the rising percentages of divorce, marriage does not seem to be a well chosen or thought out process...