Vian Al-Jaf

Student #8635517

ECE2070

Professor Amy Huskins

Wednesday May 27th 2020

 Beyond the nuclear family

3 key points:

1. There is no specific or direct definition to what family is but rather it varies in definition
depending on who you ask. To some family can include immediate relatives, distant
relatives, stepmothers/fathers, or even friends. But in general, the term falls under
groups of people who live together, share common beliefs, or ancestral history with
different types of families.
2. There are varying structures of families depending on the era or time point, for example,
in the 60s it would be peculiar if a couple of different cultural backgrounds, age
differences, and same-sex were to get married. This demonstrates that perhaps family
structures and values are dynamic and do not have to fall under one umbrella to be
accepted and normalized.
3. Stigma and discrimination was a common thing to do by people before the late 90s, as
same-sex couples, single mothers, and couples who have children later were looked
down upon. However, recently, societies are becoming more understanding and an
increase in same-sex couple marriages and single mothers have been occurring.
Society’s standards have vastly changed over the years with movements and
expectations.

One family structure that I might feel nervous or unsure of working with is perhaps the step-
parent family. This is mainly because sometimes or more often than not, children out of step-
parent families may have some emotional issues or have feelings of lack of bonding with the
step-parent. However, I do acknowledge that children or step-parent families can be content
and have no issues but in a general sense for me, I feel as though I may have to take extra
caution with not bringing up family to the children depending on whether they seem content or
not. Stepparent family is a family structure that involves 2 separate families forming and
merging together when a married couple decides to get a divorce and one partner remarries or
finds a new partner. These families often find themselves needing to learn about ways in which
contact can be made with their previous partner or spouse.

As I was watching the video I was trying to pick information that would be applicable to me in my
future place as an ECE, and I found that it was quite relevant in my future field as it outlined a
lot of the stigmas, relationships, family types, structures and societal responses to certain
families. In general, the video showed me how demeaning it was in the 50s to discriminate
against couples for their cultural backgrounds, age, status, and gender. Throughout my
readings, I learnt that there are different responsibilities that I should meet towards families,
colleagues, the public, and children (College Of Early Childhood Education,2017, p8).
Furthermore, I learnt how important it is to recognize that there are diversity and uniqueness in
families and giving meaningful experiences to family structures is important while ensuring all
families feel accepted regardless of status, gender, and culture (Wilson, 2019).

References:
Wilson, L (2019). Partnerships: Families and communities in Early Childhood ( 6th ed.).
Toronto, Canada: Nelson Education.

College of Early Childhood Educators. (2017). Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.
Toronto, Canada: CECE.