The post-soviet family
HOUSE
American apartments are usually described as one-bedroom (studio apartments), two-bedroom or three-bedroom apartments. Two- and three-bedroom apartments usually have a connecting living-room; frequently they have two bathrooms. Virtually all apartments have built-in closets with doors, which are used instead of wardrobes. Frequently apartments are without lights but have several outlets for table or floor lamps. The walls are often painted rather than wall-papered. The entrance generally is directly into the living room area; halls are rarely in evidence. Floors are generally covered with wall-to-wall carpeting. Apartment buildings usually have laundry facilities on the ground floor. Almost all apartments have refrigerators, most people now use microwave ovens which provide very convenient and fast cooking. Most apartments and houses have central thermostat which regulate the temperature.
There are two types of apartments: a rented apartment and a condominium, which an individual owns rather than rents. In addition there are town-houses which are joint houses or apartments in a compact planned group in a town. Town-houses can be purchased or rented. Rented apartments can range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars per month. The purchase price of condominiums and town-houses can range from thirty thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In the US the historical preference since the 1950's has been for people to purchase their own houses in the suburbs rather than in central areas of the cities. Private houses are the most expensive. Real estate firms advertise lands, houses and apartments and provide a market for buyers and sellers. The cost of private houses has escalated sharply in recent years and consequently people have sought to buy town houses and condominiums which generally are cheaper.
A mobile home is the cheapest form of housing that can be purchased. Mobile homes can be moved from place to place by trucks. Mobile homes are located in special mobile home parks, which are sometimes called mobile villages. They are usually on the outskirts of cities. Retired people and young people with low income reside in mobile homes which can be purchased or rented.
Types of familes
THE FAMILY
There are many different views on family life. Some people could not do without the support and love of their families. Others say it is the source of most of our problems and anxieties. Whatever the truth is the family is definitely a powerful symbol. Turn on the television or open a magazine and you will see advertisements featuring happy, balanced families. Politicians often try to win votes by standing for "family values": respect for parental authority stability in marriage, chastity and care for the elderly.
Sociologists divide families into two general types: the nuclear family and the extended family which may include three or more generations living together. In industrialized countries, and increasingly in the large cities of developing countries, the nuclear family is regarded as normal. Most people think of it as consisting of two parents and two children, hi fact. the number of house-holds containing a nuclear family is shrinking year by year.
There are people who say that the family unit in Britain is in crisis and that traditional family life is a thing of the past. This is of great concern to those who think a healthy society is dependent upon a stable family life. They see many indications that the family is in decline, in such things as the acceptance of sex before marriage, the increased number of one-parent families, the current high divorce rate and what they see as a lack of discipline within the family Some politicians blame social problems, such as drug taking and juvenile crime, on a disintegrating family life.
Concern that the family is in a state of crisis is not new in Britain. In the nineteenth century, many legislators and reformers were saying the same. It was also a concern between the two World Wars, and in the 1980s it became a continuous political issue.
There is no definition of a "normal" family. Broadly speaking, the family is a group of people related by blood or law, living together or associating with one another for a common purpose. That purpose is usually to provide shelter and food, and to bring up children. The nature of the family keeps changing: there are a number of types of family that exist in a society at any one time.
The family is the most basic and ancient of all institutions, and it remains the fundamental social unit in every society. Yet there are many people today who predict the end of the family system as we know it. The family, it is contended, is breaking down, the victim of moral decay, sexual permissiveness, changing gender roles, or irresistible social forces.
Such predictions are heard in all industrialized societies, but the statistics suggest that the family system of the world's leading postindustrial society, the United States, is under the most pressure. The great majority of both American men and women begin sexual activity before marriage. One in every five American births is to an unmarried mother, usually a teenager. One in every four pregnancies ends in abortion. The number of unmarried couples living together has tripled in less than two decades. Americans are staying single longer than ever, and more than one adult in five now lives alone. About half of American marriages are expected to end in divorce. New alternatives to traditional marriage, such as the single-parent household, are becoming steadily more common...
What exactly is a family? Our ideas on the subject may tend to be ethnocentric, for they are often based on the middle-class "ideal" family so relentlessly portrayed in TV commercials, one that consists of a husband, a wife, and their dependent children. This particular family pattern, however, is far from typical. A more accurate conception EOT the family must lake account of the many different family forms that have existed or still exist both in America and in other cultures.
What characteristics, then, are common to all family forms? first, the family consists of a group of people who are in some way related to one another. Second, its members live together for long periods. Third, the adults in the group assume responsibility
for any offspring. And forth, the members of the family form an economic unit — often for producing goods and services (us when all members share agricultural tasks) and always for consuming goods and services (such as food or housing). We may say, then, that the family is a relatively permanent group of people related by ancestry, marriage, or adoption, who live together, form an economic unit, and take care of their young. If this definition seems a little cumbersome, it is only because it has to include such a great variety of family forms.
THE POST-SOVIET FAMILY
It is high time to begin discussing the complicated matter of the family in Russia today and the factors that have had a destabilizing effect on family and marital relations. We must give serious thought to these problems and to the best ways of creating a family policy to deal with them.
What is the best approach to developing such a policy? We must first define certain fundamental principles that should guide the government and society as they seek to improve the health of marital and fily relations.
Any family policy for Russia must, first of all, be realistic. Of the many factors influencing the stability of families and marriages — material security, living conditions, state support, alcoholism, etc. — we must identify and focus on those that most lend themselves to some sort of action.
It would be senseless, for instance, to put all one's energy and resources into trying to improve the demographic situation in Russia — the ratio of men to women — which, though a true hindrance to marriage, belongs to the broad sphere of social policy. It would be far more realistic to concentrate on creating an explicit system of privileges, benefits, improved living conditions, day-care, kindergartens and the like designed to promote the family. Also, а sound family policy should systematically educate
the population in order to help it build adequate models of family survival and development, as well as lo find the best solutions lo difficult every day problems.
A rational family policy must also apply different approaches to different types of families. For example, we could divide families into four categories: critical, marginal, well-off and thriving. Government efforts should then be concentrated on marginal families, those with very low incomes and poor moral foundations. The state should not give assistance to these families will-out first considering their social characteristics and the reasons for their impoverishment. Otherwise, the number of such dependent families, incapable of leading a normal life without subsidies, is liable lo increase.
Critical families, those living below the poverty line with all the attendant consequences, also need serious help. Ideally, this help should come in the form of new jobs, retraining and re-education, supplemented by media programs and books on the material, medical and moral aspects of family life.
Unfortunately, even families considered well-off these days cannot solve their family problems by themselves: they cannot afford to pay for private medical care, to buy living space, or make other major investments in family life. However they can afford the cost of lectures, seminars, clubs, social activities and serious books about new methods of raising children and other vital social issues. These families have the potential to propel themselves to the next level and thrive.
Thriving families have solid incomes and can afford to pay for most services. For them, family policy would focus on developing special counseling services, organizing various medical and psychological programs and creating private schools and athletic and cultural facilities.
In accord with the old adage that it is better to give the hungry man a fishing rod than a fish, we must change the way we think about family policy planning. Instead of simply doling out social benefits and humanitarian and, we must constantly work to stimulate the family's own potential. We must help the family discover ways to help itself. To this end, we should in-crease the number of jobs and provide retraining opportunities for displaced workers. We must also advocate socially desirable models of family survival and development and develop a fair tax policy and special social programs that are specifically in-tended to support families.
All families must be made to understand that they can no longer count oil state aid except in the most difficult and desperate situations. This harsh attitude is the only way to rid ourselves of the psychology of social dependence that has been cultivated in Russia over the last 80 years.
In the sphere of marital and family relations, we must switch our emphasis from dependents to active workers, from irresponsible people to responsible ones, and from wage-leveling to sensible differentiation. Only then can social work be genuinely effective and produce the results that Russia's new society demands.
AMERICAN FAMILY
Most American families consist of a mother, a father, and three or four children living at home. There may be relatives — grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws in the same community, but American families usually maintain separate households. This familial structure is knows as the "nuclear family." It is unusual for members of the family other than the husband, wife, and children to live together. Occasionally an aging grandparent may live with the family, but this arrangement is usually not considered desirable. Although the nuclear family unit is economically independent of the rest of the family, members of the whole family group often maintain close kinship ties.Visiting between parents and their married children and between married sisters and brothers is frequent when they live close to each other. If they live in different communities, they keep in touch by writing letters and by telephone.
In the American family the husband and wife usually share important decision making. When the children are old enough, they participate as well.Foreign observers are frequently amazed by the permissiveness of American parents. The, old rule that "children; should be seen and riot heard" is rarely followed, and children are often allowed to do what they wish without strict parental control. The father seldom expects his children to obey him without question, and children are encouraged to be independent at an early age. Some people believe that American parents carry this freedom too far. Young people are expected to break away from their parental families by the time they have reached their late teens or early twenties. Indeed, not to do so is often regarded as a failure, a kind of weak dependence.
This pattern of independence often results in serious problems for the aging parents of a quclear family. The job-retirement age is usually 65. The children have left home, married, and set up their own households. Elderly couples feel useless and lonely with neither an occupation nor a close family group.'Many com munities and church groups sponsor social centers for "senior citizens." At these centers older mep and women can make friends and participate in a variety of planned activitiesiincluding games, trips, lectures, and discussion groups. These programs may help some old people, but they do not provide the complete solution to the problems of old age.