IELTS Essay # 29 - The modern family structure and roles of each member have changed in the recent years. Do you think it has a negative or a positive effect on families? Give your opinion and relevant examples.

Essay # 29

The modern family structure and roles of each member have changed in the recent years. Do you think it has a negative or a positive effect on families? Give your opinion and relevant examples.

The modern family has evolved in concert with industrialization, science, and technology. From large extended families living together to becoming nuclear families, many people have undergone this change.  This essay shall explore these changes that happened overtime and evince how it is a positive development rather than negative.

The traditional family has typically been represented as a father, mother, and one or more children. Here, the father was usually the breadwinner - the family’s primary source of income. The mother, on the other hand, was usually the caretaker of the household, meaning she would mind the children, the cooking, cleaning, and so on. It would also sometimes include grandparents, uncles, and aunts. These families would stay together and share their problems and responsibilities together. However, in time the families drifted apart, because of technological intervention within their dependence on one another.

Towards the 90s, a new familial structure had started to develop. With the government providing for the elderly, families began to consist only of a father, mother, and children. Technology began to provide great innovations that would assist a mother with her household chores. Since the last decade, both the father and mother are working, and care of the offspring is assumed by schools and then day-care centers. This model of the family has been very sought after ever since its introduction, and a majority of the families are now under this paradigm.

Many people feel threatened by this changing model of the family, opining that the new family structures that have taken the place of traditional ones are anachronistic whose demise is only a question of time. However, this new lifestyle is proving to be of utmost convenience to the new families and it is unlikely that people would want to go back. Also, as technological progress won’t stop, the families will evolve and adapt more with the changes.

To conclude, the modern family structures are definitely a positive development. Despite being publicised as weakened and embattled, I personally feel this family will survive as a fundamental social institution for years to come.

(345 words)