Social Class & Cultural Diversity in Families
The behaviors and beliefs of a specific group are what makes up a culture. In most places, there are various cultures within the community. Communities also have obvious social classes. What factors separate the social economic system is a matter of where you live, how big your house is, what you do for a living, how much your income is, your possessions, dialect, appearances, etc. So, question of the day: are all of these different cultures equally effective at meeting the same purpose?
In order to understand the question above, I watched many episodes from People Like Us: Social Class in America which is a film that looks at how class really works in America and examines how it affects our understanding of race and gender as well as how differences in class can shape daily life.
Let's start with the lower class:
The episode that portrays the lifestyle of lower class - and perhaps the lowest class - families includes a single mother raising her two sons in a trailer home as she tries to make a living off of being a Burger King employee. While being interviewed, the mother explains her feelings as being content of how far she's come since her dad worked hard as well to provide for her and her 21 siblings. Therefore, she says she is proud of her dad, and she thinks he would be proud of her for working her best to provide for her family.
On the other hand, her oldest son, Matt, doesn't hold back his disgust with their current lifestyle. Matt says he wouldn't ever want to introduce his mom to his friends or have his friends over at his place because they're all a class higher.
Most people might look at this family and respect the mom for putting in the work to help support her family instead of just "taking the easier route" by using welfare. However, some downfalls can be overlooked by her admirable and no doubt hard decisions. For example, there is not a male role model around for the boys, so Matt takes on the role of teaching his younger brother things that he thinks will help people like him. The mother has to work long hours because they only have her single income to live on; she also does not have a car, so she walks 20 miles to work and back which takes even more time away from home. This leads her kids to be alone for extended periods of time which means they have no structure or stable relationship with their mom.
Now, we'll skip to the high class:
The high/working class appeals to most people because "having money means having the freedom to create your own lifestyle." Generally, everyone believes that life is better a couple rungs higher on the economic ladder, but when we dig deeper we find that it's just an illusion. For example, the wealthy life is also most commonly the busy life. You have to keep up with your appearances and connections to keep your abundant resources which may take you away from home for long periods of time. If you have a family then you can just hire a nanny, and they'll take care of the kids which will make it all fine, right? Actually, nannies are great and all, but when the parents are constantly busy making money they are unavailable to the kids which causes a detached relationship. Therefore, their kids have no structure or stable relationship with their parents.
Isn't that interesting? We all think that life is greener on the richer side, but in fact it could still be damaging to a family. So, the culture that is toxic to the family is only slightly due to a household income; in all truth, a parent's distraction from their children and family creates faults in the system. I believe that this attention is being deprived from the good of the kids because the focus is on climbing up that social ladder in order to create "a better lifestyle for their kids" when in all reality the key to raising successful children is focusing first on your relationship with your spouse and using that strong relationship to work together to build and sustain bonds with your children. They will look up to you because marriage is ideal for them; they just need to see it in their own lives. In a video called, "Class and Family Structure in the United States," a family therapist and educator discusses how family structure frequently differs along the social class lines, and his findings result in the statement that we need to educate people on what it takes to form and sustain lasting unions for the children.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the social class of a family affects their culture and overall effectiveness? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
In order to understand the question above, I watched many episodes from People Like Us: Social Class in America which is a film that looks at how class really works in America and examines how it affects our understanding of race and gender as well as how differences in class can shape daily life.
Let's start with the lower class:
The episode that portrays the lifestyle of lower class - and perhaps the lowest class - families includes a single mother raising her two sons in a trailer home as she tries to make a living off of being a Burger King employee. While being interviewed, the mother explains her feelings as being content of how far she's come since her dad worked hard as well to provide for her and her 21 siblings. Therefore, she says she is proud of her dad, and she thinks he would be proud of her for working her best to provide for her family.
On the other hand, her oldest son, Matt, doesn't hold back his disgust with their current lifestyle. Matt says he wouldn't ever want to introduce his mom to his friends or have his friends over at his place because they're all a class higher.
Most people might look at this family and respect the mom for putting in the work to help support her family instead of just "taking the easier route" by using welfare. However, some downfalls can be overlooked by her admirable and no doubt hard decisions. For example, there is not a male role model around for the boys, so Matt takes on the role of teaching his younger brother things that he thinks will help people like him. The mother has to work long hours because they only have her single income to live on; she also does not have a car, so she walks 20 miles to work and back which takes even more time away from home. This leads her kids to be alone for extended periods of time which means they have no structure or stable relationship with their mom.
Now, we'll skip to the high class:
The high/working class appeals to most people because "having money means having the freedom to create your own lifestyle." Generally, everyone believes that life is better a couple rungs higher on the economic ladder, but when we dig deeper we find that it's just an illusion. For example, the wealthy life is also most commonly the busy life. You have to keep up with your appearances and connections to keep your abundant resources which may take you away from home for long periods of time. If you have a family then you can just hire a nanny, and they'll take care of the kids which will make it all fine, right? Actually, nannies are great and all, but when the parents are constantly busy making money they are unavailable to the kids which causes a detached relationship. Therefore, their kids have no structure or stable relationship with their parents.
Isn't that interesting? We all think that life is greener on the richer side, but in fact it could still be damaging to a family. So, the culture that is toxic to the family is only slightly due to a household income; in all truth, a parent's distraction from their children and family creates faults in the system. I believe that this attention is being deprived from the good of the kids because the focus is on climbing up that social ladder in order to create "a better lifestyle for their kids" when in all reality the key to raising successful children is focusing first on your relationship with your spouse and using that strong relationship to work together to build and sustain bonds with your children. They will look up to you because marriage is ideal for them; they just need to see it in their own lives. In a video called, "Class and Family Structure in the United States," a family therapist and educator discusses how family structure frequently differs along the social class lines, and his findings result in the statement that we need to educate people on what it takes to form and sustain lasting unions for the children.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the social class of a family affects their culture and overall effectiveness? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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