Family Structure and Status

    I've often thought about what types of opportunities have been afforded to me, while some people don't have those same opportunities: A stable job, a high school education, higher education, not having to worry about where my next meal is coming from, having access to clean water. While I was living in Ecuador, I saw many people from all sorts of social status backgrounds. Some people lived in extremely nice houses with beautiful furniture and a beautiful view. Others lived in shacks with walls made of sugar cane and dirt floors, the only source of water being a hose ran through the wall to a makeshift bucket sink. I have often thought, what affords the opportunity to live on a certain rung of the social status ladder? Is it pure luck? Being born rich or poor? Can those who are on lower rungs work their way up to the top easily?

    I believe it could be a mixture of all these factors, but I think that it has to do much with the family structure that we are born in. The reason why is because that is how we learn the way life should be, and it influences the decisions that we make as we create our own models of our families. It's not set in stone that we have to live in the same way our families did, but we learn certain habits, behaviors, cultures, and traditions from them. Family culture passes through generations, this helps us to develop into the people we are actively. This pattern continues unless something specific intervenes with it. That brings forth the question: Are all family structures valid?

    To answer this question, I would like to share more of the meaning behind the word "valid." Something that is valid produces a desired result or is effective. My opinion of the validity of family structures is that they are not all the same. Since families follow patterns and traditions are inherited, it causes that certain results may be accepted in some families, but may be rejected in others. Or rather, different family cultures produce different results in how a person grows. If I grow up in a divorced family, it makes it much more likely that I would imitate that same family structure in my life.

    For example, this family structure could affect status due to the resource constraints that exist when only a single parent is raising several kids. These resources not only include food, money, or living conditions, but also things like time. A single parent has much less time to raise their children because they need to provide necessities of life. This not only causes financial difficulties though; it could also cause an imbalance of the family structure. Rather than having a traditional two parent unit, there is only one parent, that is only in the picture part of the time. This causes the children to start taking leadership positions within the family. You many be wondering, why is that such a big deal? Well, think about it, how could a 15-year-old raising their younger sibling go wrong? They don't have the same life experience, that adults do, to be able to help their children. The scariest part is that since this is how the children are raised, they are more likely to raise their kids with the same family structure. In turn, this causes them to have the same disadvantages of resources. Although, this type of influence is also seen on the opposite side of the spectrum: a traditional family will raise children more likely to have that same family structure, with its advantages.

    Now, in no way am I saying that all children of single parents are doomed to fail or that a single parent family cannot be high class. Nor is every traditional family ideal and advantageous. I repeat, our lives are not set in stone based off of what our parents lived. A situation as above may end up being okay too, but we must be wary of the influence our family's structure have on us. I feel like the most important question to ask ourselves is, 'Does the culture that we are making meet the children's needs?' Our future generations are affected most by what we do now.