I'm going to ask a provocative question, read on.......?

Question

Do you think that todays society in the western world is going to pot and decline because the loss of family values? Crime rate etc. etc...
Do you think, going back 50 years or so when most married women stayed at home with their families there seemed to be a more peaceful society.
I come from a family where both mother and father went to work, but I don't agree it's best for the family.
Critize me, if you will but that's my personal opinion.
I see the lives and times of my grandparents so much happier.

Answer 1

I am going to come at this question from a little different perspective than most of you younger people. 50 years ago I was 10 and my Mom stayed home, took care of the house, took care of the kids, took care of everything that had to do with either of those things. Dad went to work. I knew that Mom would be there when I went to school and I knew almost all my friends Moms would be at home waiting for them to come home. We were secure. Almost all children walked to and from school at that time and we knew if someone frightned us we could go to a friends house and be safe. We also knew that if we got into trouble at school we would be in trouble at home. How we behaved was noted by the whold community and if we acted out the whold community would let our parents know exactly what we were doing. Were we happier? I think so. My parents grew up during the depression and they instilled in me a need to be careful of my money, to save, and to pay all my bills on time. Because of these things, these ideas I am a better more stable adult. I wish we could go back to and find the good parts of 50 years ago and bring them forward to now. There were some very bad parts of 50 years ago among the worse was the way white people treated blacks. It was very bad but this is when the civil rights movement started gaining steam. I am a true baby boomer. So much has changed in the world since I was born. My generation changed so many things and we did it so fast that I don't think we have had a chance to evaluate how those changes affected not only our lives but the lives of our children and now our grandchildren. 50 years from now I hope my grandchildren can say that they had happy secure childhoods. History will be the true judge.

Answer 2

~I agree with you. I see a lot of answers on here that make sense and a lot that pull the answer off into another direction. Yes, there were still bad things going on 50 years ago that people just didn't talk about.
I was lucky enough to be a part of my grandparents lives when I was a child. My grandparents knew where they stood in the family. Grandma cooked and cleaned and grandpa brought home the bread. They weren't spending beyond their means. If anyone spoke harshly to grandma, grandpa let you know it was not acceptable.
My grandpa took care of grandma when she was sick. It was a true marriage in every sense of the word.
I had high expectations for my marriage, which only lasted 10 years. I was devastated for years. Now I'm a single mother doing the best I can. Because I was sick, my ex couldn't handle it. Vows aren't taken seriously anymore and that's a shame. My ex is also a dead beat dad, and PROUD of it.
It's hard sometimes to punish your children, you're frowned on by society for doing so. If a child is beaten, I think it should be investigated, but too many people can't mind their own business.
Another thing is sex. It's everywhere, you can't keep your child a child unless you moved into the wilderness! Yes, at some point they need to know, but it shouldn't be so open. All they need to know when their children is that their private parts belong to them and no one should touch them there.
Thank you for the question.~

Answer 3

I do not believe that the decline of Western Civilization has come about because women work outside of the home. My mother and father did both, for many years, she stayed home and he worked. Then, they both worked. Our family values stayed exactly the same. The lives and times of our grandparents were happier because of a more simplistic, less technical world, but during that time the KKK was formed. Wife beating was acceptable ( remember the rule of thumb) drunk drivers were allowed to 'dry out' and sent home the next day. No one was told to watch out for child molesters because no one wanted to speak of such things. Maybe that's how my neighbor, nephew and me became molested because of this "simpler time". People could quit school on a whim. Old folks home were almost non-existent and people had to take care of horribly sick oldsters because there were no choices. Women with brilliant minds sat home and had 12-13 children because they were conditioned to believe that's all they could do! I'm not criticizing you, I think I understand the point you are trying to make. So, I'll end this with some words my daddy said from the time he had children in 1941 until 1964 when I was born, "Times change, people change, but morals and what is right never do". I think the decline you speak of is our own fault for letting what is moral and right become gray areas. I'm a divorced Mother of a 11 year old boy. I have no choice but to work outside the home because his deadbeat dad won't pay child support unless the desire hits him and that's not often, and even if he paid every month we couldn't live on it. My little one is a good kid because I raise him with the same morals and values I was raised with. Maybe it's the decline of that teaching that made this world so caustic. God bless America. Please. And you too. km

Answer 4

The family concept as advertised on TV is a very new concept! The problems with society are partially due to the family identity. (e.g: my family is important...and more than the next family, the people in my road are more important than the people in the other road are, the people in my town are more important than the people in the other town....).
The problem with society today, just as with medicine, we treat the symptoms without looking at the cause. The reason why we don't look at the cause is because we would have to reevaluate how we do things, we would have to stop working as individualists and start working as a system (which we are a part of, even if everyone pretends not to). Yes working together, for the good of all and not just for the good of one.
We would also have to tackle greed. Not just money greed but the greed of everyone of us, who want the latest gadget and the best car!

Answer 5

Nice to see another good question on Y ! answers.

Yes, I appreciate your views

atleast one among the parents should stay at home to look after children and to look after the home. Afterall life is not just for earning money or for procuring physical comforts. Great amount of talent lies in efficiently handling the home which is much important for the proper development of the family as well as for the society.

Nothing in the world matches with the pure love of mom or dad. The more matured the parents are the more positive the environment of the home the more efficient the child becomes. such child not only be successful in profession but also becomes an asset to the society or country

Answer 6

Amin brother, excellent write, if you do go back 50 years you definitely see the family values, the society in a better condition, life was good, our grandparents were much happier. Feminism as you will is the biggest reason why today there is so much loss in family values, the feminists hate men, to them marriage is unlawful, hetrosexuality is unnatural, lesbianism is natural, men are not needed, men are just toys to them to keep human population to go on, if you look into the psychology of these feminists, you will see that they probably come from families who never had fathers, their mothers were working mothers and thus could not provide love and affection much, women who had father figures are much better off then the feminists, the feminists are sad lonely creatures who couldn't get a man no matter what they try, because they probably never been in a healthy relationship, they just want to have kids and look after them all on their own. they do not care how the child is hurt without a father figure as long as they have a child , they are selfish to the core, to the soul. if only could they see the light, society would be alot better.

Answer 7

I kind of agree but I blame our technological society. Let me explain....

Kids these days are entertained by technology, not by friends and family. Parents think its right to let the TV and PlayStation take up the rest of the time up outside of school and homework. This requires little input from the child. The child doesn't learn citizenship values or communication skills. The child doesn't learn how to entertain themselves either.

Kids get bored.

Whilst these things are taught at school, they're certainly not learnt by the child.

50 years ago kids spent time with their friends and family learning how to be adults from their parents and playing with their friends.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy TV and enjoy computer games, and there really is a big place for those items in a child's life but a TV should never be bringing up a person.

Answer 8

No offense, but I think it's naive to think things were "better." Better how? For whom? Women and black people had no social equality...was segregation better? I think the people who said that there was plenty of bad stuff going on back then, it just wasn't out in the open, are right. I don't understand why people look back and idealize the era of 50 years ago (in America) when so much inequality and human injustice existed. That is certainly not "better" in my mind. The "lives and times" of your grandparents may have been "happier," (although, actually, I doubt it, that's just your perception) but only if they were white and privileged (and your grandmother was happy with her second class status). Also, there are many more sociological factors at play in regard to the crime rate, than just "women not staying home anymore." In fact, I think this has very little to do with the crime rate. Poverty is a much greater predictor of crime and violence than any other factor, and two income families are not likely to produce violent criminals (or criminals in general)...look at the research on this. Single parenthood has been linked to higher crime rates, but, again, this is because a single parent is much more likely to raise children in poverty.

Answer 9

I don't necessarily think it is caused by women going to work but I think that both phenomenons are caused by the same thing , a society governed by self interest. As wages have risen and capitalism has strengthened its grip people have applied the same principle from for this type of the economy to everyday life. My own and to hell with the community. People don't even know their own neighbours so why would they care about stealing from them or vandalising their property ? People are afraid to discipline their kids , just because they can no longer legally wallop them ? That does not mean they cannot be kept in line . People value materials above their fellow man , things that were seen as luxuries [ and still should be ] like holidays abroad are seen as human rights. Those that cannot match up to this high cost of living will do it through any way they can , even illegally. I want now , I must have !! My parents both worked but I learnt how to value money and not piss it up the wall , I don't go on holidays I just care about keeping a roof over my head. I was also raised to have enough pride in myself to not need possessions to complete and define me and not ever steal for it.

Answer 10

Every family should choose it's own way of life and organizing, respecting the true needs of all its members. You can not blame women who decided to work and build their career for increasing the crime rate in society. Moreover, criminals and offenders are usually coming from very traditionally and patriarchal oriented families, where mothers are playing one very passive and almost invisible role and are very often the victims of domestic violence. Family values like love, security, care and intimacy are missing exactly in this kind of families. If the mother is employed and successful it does not necessary mean the decreasing and loos of family values. And if some of those values are support and understanding, I don't see the reason why she wouldn't be the one who receives it, not only the one who gives it. Both my parents are in business and my mother likes her profession very much but I don't remember that I have ever been suffering because of that. What is important for kids to be happy is their satisfied mother, being she housewife or engineer. It is important that it is her choice and that she likes what she is doing.