The challenge is great. Despite all the talk about "family values, " the family is besieged. The percentage of children living below the poverty line rose 49 percent from 1973 to 1992; American children are less likely to be immunized than those of any other developed nation; and many corporations still lag behind in areas such as maternity leave, while rewarding workers for long hours away from home. Moreover, the skyrocketing divorce rate and boom in the out-of-wedlock birth rate has relegated the "traditional family" to the realm of myth. Against this grim backdrop, Dr. Westheimer sees tremendous hope. She argues that the family is actually redefining itself in ways that will become more important - and more accepted - in the 21st Century. She points to changes in social attitudes and corporate and governmental policies that will allow for more unconventional but functioning family units, such as "step-" or "blended" families, and families headed by a gay single parent or couple. In addition, she sees generations pulling together for the sake of today's children, as more and more grandparents become active in their grandchildren's lives. In this book, help is available. Compiling an exhaustive list of family programs, resources, and self-help groups around the country and on the Internet, Dr. Westheimer tells parents how to get help for themselves and their children. And, sternly taking issue with new governmental legislation that claims to be "pro-family, " she points our leaders in a bold new direction.
The challenge is great. Despite all the talk about "family values, " the family is besieged. The percentage of children living below the poverty line rose 49 percent from 1973 to 1992; American children are less likely to be immunized than those of any other developed nation; and many corporations still lag behind in areas such as maternity leave, while rewarding workers for long hours away from home. Moreover, the skyrocketing divorce rate and boom in the out-of-wedlock birth rate has relegated the "traditional family" to the realm of myth. Against this grim backdrop, Dr. Westheimer sees tremendous hope. She argues that the family is actually redefining itself in ways that will become more important - and more accepted - in the 21st Century. She points to changes in social attitudes and corporate and governmental policies that will allow for more unconventional but functioning family units, such as "step-" or "blended" families, and families headed by a gay single parent or couple. In addition, she sees generations pulling together for the sake of today's children, as more and more grandparents become active in their grandchildren's lives. In this book, help is available. Compiling an exhaustive list of family programs, resources, and self-help groups around the country and on the Internet, Dr. Westheimer tells parents how to get help for themselves and their children. And, sternly taking issue with new governmental legislation that claims to be "pro-family, " she points our leaders in a bold new direction.
Both titles provide well-researched information on the nature of the family in the United States today, and both agree that we cannot turn back in history to an earlier view of the family, but each has a different focus and message. Westheimer (the famous "Dr. Ruth," author of Encyclopedia of Sex, LJ 7/94) and Yagoda examine what constitutes a family, defined in the traditional sense of a household, and then recommend how the family can be helped by individuals, government, and business. The authors recognize many variations of the family, arguing that it may be headed by same-sex partners, unmarried partners, single parents, stepparents, or grandparents. They conclude, "We will never bolster the family if we insist that it has to fit the old-fashioned, and in many cases outdated, model." Ahern (a professional writer) and Bailey (psychology, Virginia Commonwealth Univ.), on the other hand, define family as the people we choose to support us in our daily lives, not those people in our household or related to us by blood. In their view, "Our modern society, with its dysfunctional families, easily dissolved s family as the people we choose to supporing population, is forcing us to become increasingly skillful in developing `kin-like' relations with an ever-increasing range of individuals." In their study of kinship from its ancient roots to the 1990s, they emphasize intentional communities formed by many ties‘work, neighborhood, the Internet, religious and social groups and show how to build such families. Both titles are recommended for public and undergraduate libraries.‘Kay Brodie, Chesapeake Coll., Wye Mills, Md.
Any realistic definition of the modern family, asserts bestselling sex therapist Westheimer, must include prominent roles for nurturing fathers, stepfamilies and grandparents, as well as for gay and lesbian parents. The so-called traditional nuclear family, she maintains, is largely an idealized fantasy that briefly predominated in the 1950s. Writing in the first person with Yagoda (Will Rogers: A Biography), Westheimer looks at tensions and ambivalences in the new extended family; assesses the negative impact of divorce and of absent fathers; surveys popular TV shows as mirrors of family life; and examines the special pressures on African American families. She revealingly discloses how her sense of family evolved out of personal experiences‘the deaths of her parents in the Holocaust, her flight from Nazi Germany, single motherhood in New York, two divorces followed by a happy marriage. She offers a practical guide to innovative private and government-funded family-support programs and sets forth policy proposals urging businesses and the federal government to help foster family solidarity and well-being. Finally, she outlines sensible steps for parents who want to implement a family-togetherness strategy. A humane, levelheaded, eye-opening look at changing family dynamics. Author tour. (July)
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