This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee. Preface

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• 
  Although the nuclear family has been very common, many children throughout history have not lived in a nuclear family, in part because a parent would die at an early age.
  
• 
  Most Americans eventually marry. This fact means that marriage remains an important ideal in American life, even if not all marriages succeed.
  
• 
  About 30 percent of children live with only one parent, almost always their mother.
  

FOR YOUR REVIEW

1. 
   Write a brief essay in which you describe the advantages and disadvantages of the 1950s-type nuclear family in which the father works outside the home and the mother stays at home.
   
2. 
   The text notes that most people eventually marry. In view of the fact that so many marriages end in divorce, why do you think that so many people continue to marry?
   
3. 
   Some of the children who live only with their mothers were born out of wedlock. Do you think the parents should have married for the sake of their child? Why or why not?
   

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[11] Cherlin, A. J. (2010). The marriage-go-round: The state of marriage and the family in America today. New York, NY: Vintage; Hull, K. E., Meier, A., & Ortyl, T. (2012). The changing landscape of love and marriage. In D. Hartmann & C. Uggen (Eds.), The contexts reader (2nd ed., pp. 56–63). New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

[12] Cherlin, A. J. (2010). The marriage-go-round: The state of marriage and the family in America today. New York, NY: Vintage

[13] Simon, R. W. (2008). The joys of parenthood, reconsidered. Contexts, 7(2), 40–45.

[14] Simon, R. W. (2008). The joys of parenthood, reconsidered. Contexts, 7(2), 40–45.