{"id":10985,"date":"2020-03-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=10985"},"modified":"2020-03-09T09:55:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T14:55:52","slug":"no-the-nuclear-family-is-not-a-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/no-the-nuclear-family-is-not-a-mistake","title":{"rendered":"No, the Nuclear Family is Not a “Mistake”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The author and New\nYork Times<\/em> columnist David Brooks made waves in the March 2020 issue of The Atlantic<\/em>, where he argued that \u201cThe\nNuclear Family Was A Mistake.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooks\u2019 argument runs thus: In previous centuries, mankind\nlived not in nuclear families of parents and children, but in large, extended\nkin networks. These kin, he argues, were not necessarily related by blood\u2014some\nwere the people you hunted with, and some were the people you migrated with.\nFast forward several thousand years. \u201cThrough the early parts of American history,\u201d\nBrooks continues, \u201cmost people lived in what, by today\u2019s standards, were big,\nsprawling households.\u201d The Industrial Revolution changed all of that, as\nindividual men and women fled the farm, and their families, to pursue life in\nthe big city. When these men and women formed families, they were not the big,\nsprawling kin networks of old. Rather, they were nuclear families\u2014two parents,\nwith children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the nuclear family, Brooks argues, is \u201cinherently\nfragile.\u201d It worked briefly, in a historical blip from roughly 1950-1965, but\nhas been falling apart ever since. Whereas extended families \u201chave two great\nstrengths.\u201d \u201cThe first,\u201d Brooks continues, \u201cis resilience. An extended family\nis one or more families in a supporting web.\u201d When one relationship falls\napart\u2014someone leaves, or divorces, or a relationship is strained\u2014there are\ngrandparents, cousins, uncles, etc. to step in and take care of any children.\nThere are people there to fill the gaps. Brooks continues, \u201cThe second great\nstrength of extended families is their socializing force.\u201d Children have\nnumerous adults to look up to for education and moral instruction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those families are gone, and the nuclear family is in\ncrisis. What are we to do? Brooks\u2019 solution is \u201cforged families\u201d\u2014\u201cIn reaction\nto family chaos,\u201d he writes, \u201caccumulating evidence suggests, the\nprioritization of family is beginning to make a comeback. Americans are\nexperimenting with new forms of kinship and extended family in search of\nstability.\u201d Part of this \u201ccomeback,\u201d he believes, is truly a return to prior\nways, as more Americans are now living in multigenerational homes than\nbefore\u2014many of them adult children returning to live with parents, and aging\nparents moving in with children. But some of this movement looks a bit different.\nBrooks writes, \u201cThe past several years have seen the rise of new living\narrangements that bring nonbiological kin into family or familylike [sic<\/em>]\nrelationships.\u201d He documents networks of single mothers who share spaces and\nchildcare duties, co-housing communities for young parents, or other co-housing\nunits where residents share some common meals and duties but have private\nspaces. \u201cFor decades we have been eating at smaller and smaller tables, with\nfewer and fewer kin,\u201d Brooks closes. \u201cIt\u2019s time to find ways to bring back the\nbig tables.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This lengthy essay had its controversial moments, and the\nInstitute for Family Studies published six separate responses to it. Many of\nthese responses share common themes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wendy\nWang and W. Bradford Wilcox<\/a> point out that yes, more Americans are now\nliving in multigenerational homes, but data show that \u201cAdults who live with\ntheir parents are less happy than others.\u201d And similar research shows that\nparents are happier when their adult children leave the house. Scott Stanely\nwonders, \u201chow many elderly Americans want<\/em>\nto have less autonomy and live with their kin?\u201d Many, he continues, \u201ccling to\ntheir autonomy and will fight to keep it until reality forces them to do\notherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew\nCherlin<\/a> and Kay\nHymowitz<\/a> both point out research that flies in the face of David Brooks\u2019\nhistorical narrative. \u201cScholars now pretty much agree,\u201d Hymowitz writes, \u201cthat\nthe nuclear family household has been the \u2018dominant form\u2019 in Western Europe and\nthe United States since the dawn of the industrial era.\u201d There is something\ninnate in men and women alike that leads them to form pair bonds, which she\ncalls the \u201cinextinguishable human urge for pair bonding.\u201d Furthermore, she\ncontinues, \u201cIn data published in a 1994 paper, [Steven] Ruggles estimated that\nas of 1880, more than two-thirds of white couples, the large majority with\nchildren, lived in independent households. The anomaly was the extended family,\nnot the nuclear family.\u201d Cherlin agrees: \u201cin the past, white families were\nrarely centered on large family groups.\u201d And he believes that Brooks\u2019 \u201cforged\nfamilies\u201d have their own fragility problems: \u201cThese kinship ties are easier to\nbreak because they are voluntary; neither strong norms nor laws stand in the\nway of ending them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard\nReeves<\/a> agrees with Brooks that \u201cboth the quality and the quantity of our\nrelationships matter,\u201d and continues, \u201cThe idea of a \u201cchosen\u201d family is\nconsistent with the development of modern liberalism, in which relationships\nare contingent rather than coerced.\u201d And Rod\nDreher<\/a> cites the decline in religious commitment for the failure of the\nfamily. \u201cOne can only hope for [forged families\u2019] success,\u201d but without religious\ncommitment, it seems doubtful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So where are we left, after all of that? The authors all\nagree that the nuclear family is on the decline, and this presents\nproblems\u2014mostly for children. They all agree that unfettered desire for\npersonal autonomy and freedom has made families more fragile, and again, life\nfor children harder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But many of the experts at the Institute for Family Studies\ncontend that in calling the nuclear family a \u201cmistake,\u201d Brooks is missing\nrather a lot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The author and New York Times columnist David Brooks made waves in the March 2020 issue of The Atlantic, where he argued that \u201cThe Nuclear Family Was A Mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":10986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"A series of experts respond to David Brooks' recent controversial article in The Atlantic.","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"510"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[510,805],"tags":[911,2093],"class_list":["post-10985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-foreground","tag-family","tag-the-natural-family"],"yoast_head":"\nNo, the Nuclear Family is Not a "Mistake" - 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King is the Managing Editor of IOF's journal, The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy, the United States\u2019 leading journal of family-policy research. In that capacity, she writes, edits and corresponds with editors and contributors to ensure that each issue provides the most relevant and accurate research and policy analysis available. Nicole holds a B.A. in English as well as M.A.s in English and Political Theory. She has contributed to The Front Porch Republic and Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, among others. She is also a contributing editor to SALVO Magazine and a blogger at salvomag.com.","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/nkingifamnews-com"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10991,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10985\/revisions\/10991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}