Question

Based on Chapter 7, Reading 19 (Page 255) of book Family in Transition 15th Edition by Skolnick & Skolnick

Q. Discuss why people want to become parents and what are some of the challenges of parenthood.

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Answer 1

One of the basic aim of marriage and long term relationship is to have nurturing family with children. Having children in a family life gives them sense of fulfillment, completeness, and belongingness.

The challenges that are faced by parenthood are:

• Establishing balance between work, career, family. As most of the partners are working and have their own career goals, having children demands their attention, time and effort. Parents initially find difficulty in managing their work,, career and children.
• Stress and tension that arises during sharing the responsibility of parenthood. As traditionally there was an unequal sharing of responsibility as women did the upbringing of the children in a family with father figures sharing the least responsibility, now the working of couples require, both the partners participation. This often causes tension in family, when women find it difficult to do their second shift in family, and men tend to avoid their responsibilities.
• The nuclear family system leaves the new parents with no social support which is necessary during the initial periods, due their inexperience.
• Couples face difficulty to adjust to the demand of attention to the new borns and children because of the growing trends of individuality that is leading to narcissism.
• Requires policies that take care of wellness and health of family.