Where does the importance of family stand in today's society?

[twb1621]

Regarding priorities, has the importance of family been abandoned for the sake of worldly success? What is the importance of family to today’s Christian and when does success become greed?

 

[jwashu]

I would say part of the key to this question is extended family… how do we treat our elders in America? do they stay with us? do we take care of them so they can help teach our children or do we stick them in a home when it’s no longer convenient for them to be around…

Joe

 

[takers]

If you’re looking at family as a whole across society you’d probably see, on the surface, that family isn’t very important. People are so fast paced that they run from one thing to the next and overlook that which is most important. But when you look beneath the surface you’ll see that individually, family is very important with people making hard sacrificing decisions for the betterment of the family. So don’t pay attention to the news because they only look at the surface. Pay attention to your local communities and you’ll get closer to the reality of family importance.

 

[Cat]

Sadly I think that we’re being influenced by the media to accept that the “world-wide family, including not only humans, but animals, plants, and anything else” is more important than the “nuclear family” consisting of father, mother, and children.

We are being told that a family is just “people who love each other.” In other words a family can be two men who love each other, two women who love each other, several people who love each other even though they’re not related in any way, etc.

And I think so many of us are afraid to offend that we don’t disagree when we have the opportunity. Of course, nowadays in many companies, if you “disagree,” you can be fired without warning for “intolerance.” Very scary.

Good topic.

 

[GhostMan]

The irony is that we are a child centered society that is anti-family. We rush our children from one set of stuff to another and never spend time as a family building relationships and teaching them about the value of the people in their lives.

I have children ranging from 25 to 1. Ten of them, in fact. I have seen my older children become good adults, starting their own families and making me proud. I look back on what worked the best and I see that it was not the dancing, the sports, the plays, the activities, but the fact that we carved out portions of our lives to just be with them. Not in a planned activity, but just with them.

As I raise my youngest children, I am seeing more and more the power of just being “with” them, and they with me. It is in those quiet times of shared companionship that values are passed on, not in the car eating yet another burger between games.

I have changed how I live my life to be a simplier person, content with the finer pleasures found in nature, companionship and shared adventure. These are the values I try and pass on. My older children had a somewhat more driven father, one who tried to do a lot of things and like shiny gadgets.

I still like gadgets; I still have a desire to get a lot of things done, but I now see the power of doing them at a pace that will include my children; activities that encourage multi-generational togetherness.

My children were never the center of my world, that will never change. It is not good for them or for me (and my wife). I am more aware, however, that time spent with them must be time spent being with them, not just in their company.

Family is not valued in this country; children are seen as sources of power (teacher’s unions, government agencies) and money (consumers), but not as treasured people who need to be sharped and molded. Family can only truly be valued by the members of that family.

 

[twb1621]

Has our desire to achieve our financial and materialistic goals led us to abandon or at minimum forget the value of family members interactions with and around our children and what the children may learn from those relationships during their most progressive years? It seems those who’s priorities are family before wealth are often happier and more secure than those who seek but never reach a level of satisfaction in money or property. Pride can never be satisfied because it creates competition and there is always someone else who has bigger or better. Commercialism makes sure of that.

 

[SourGrape]

The irony is that we are a child centered society that is anti-family. We rush our children from one set of stuff to another and never spend time as a family building relationships and teaching them about the value of the people in their lives.

I have children ranging from 25 to 1. Ten of them, in fact. I have seen my older children become good adults, starting their own families and making me proud. I look back on what worked the best and I see that it was not the dancing, the sports, the plays, the activities, but the fact that we carved out portions of our lives to just be with them. Not in a planned activity, but just with them.

As I raise my youngest children, I am seeing more and more the power of just being “with” them, and they with me. It is in those quiet times of shared companionship that values are passed on, not in the car eating yet another burger between games.

I have changed how I live my life to be a simplier person, content with the finer pleasures found in nature, companionship and shared adventure. These are the values I try and pass on. My older children had a somewhat more driven father, one who tried to do a lot of things and like shiny gadgets.

I still like gadgets; I still have a desire to get a lot of things done, but I now see the power of doing them at a pace that will include my children; activities that encourage multi-generational togetherness.

My children were never the center of my world, that will never change. It is not good for them or for me (and my wife). I am more aware, however, that time spent with them must be time spent being with them, not just in their company.

Family is not valued in this country; children are seen as sources of power (teacher’s unions, government agencies) and money (consumers), but not as treasured people who need to be sharped and molded. Family can only truly be valued by the members of that family.

 

[roanoker]

The concept of the traditional family-mother, father, children living together, is being badly eroded in our society, by the secular media, hollywood, the ACLU(especially them), and by left-wing liberals of every stripe. And our moral decline as a nation matches this erosion.

 

[Lujack]

I think we’re shooting ourselves in the foot constantly with this idealization of the nuclear family. The nuclear family exists strongly still. What we lost was the extended family and the community spirit. God, I wish I grew up in a neighborhood like my parents, where the aunts lived down the street and my dad played with cousins and they knew the butcher and the baker and the grocer and the priest. In my neighborhood, I knew my family, the family next door, and the family across the street.

The family is strengthened by a strong community. We need that back, and I’m not sure how to do it.

Of course, part of this is my bias against the concept of mother and father move away from the relatives and start a new family idea. I prefer strong extended families.

EDIT: I don’t mean to imply anything bad about nuclear families. I just don’t see why it has to be held up as the end-all-be-all of traditional values, when it really isn’t.