Families in the Year 2050

Families in the Year 2050


Forty years from now families may not be that different than they are now. It is becoming the norm for married couples to get divorced and have second marriages. It is also more and more likely for children to have two working parents. Society puts a lot of weight on material things and people always want what’s new. Children are getting cell phones at very young ages along with iPods and portable DVD players. Families want to keep up with each other by always having the ‘in’ things. In order for people to live these types of lifestyles it is mandatory for both parents to work. The downside of this is that parents have less time to spend with their children, and by the teenage years many kids are left home alone after school. The family relationship suffers when both parents have to work.

Families in the future will most likely have fewer children. When both parents are working, it becomes less likely to have more than a couple kids. “The global total fertility rate fell from five children per woman per lifetime in 1950 to 2.7 children in 2000” (Bonner 2003). The parents realize that they are at work too much, and it wouldn’t be fair to the children. It also becomes expensive to hire a babysitter or put a child in daycare. For many college-educated women, their careers become very important to them, and focus on work for awhile. Another reason for having fewer children might be that they start having children at an older age. When both parents go to college they start having children later in life, and have less child bearing years. “…college educated women were marrying less often and bearing fewer children than non-college educated women” (Kimmel 2004 p 24).

Other factors that will affect families are living situations and longevity. Society is constantly building new houses, shopping centers, factories etc. By the year 2050 the world will be much more urbanized. Population density will also be higher and people will be living in much more crowded areas. “The world's average population density is expected to rise from 45 people per square kilometer in the year 2000 to 66 people per square kilometer by 2050” (Bonner 2003).

With all of the medical advancements that are being made, life expectancy is increasing. People are living much longer and by the year 2050 the life expectancy will be even older. This will mean that grandparents may be living with their children or grandchildren in the same house. “By 2050, there will be 2.5 people aged 60 years or older for every child 4 years old or younger, a shift that has serious implications for health care spending for the young and old” (Bonner 2003) If people live to be older and there is a problem with healthcare, there will be no money for nursing homes, causing many generations to live with each other.

By the year 2050 there will also be different family structure. The traditional families that exist today, with a mother, father, and children won’t be so common. “…today marriage is increasingly optional. To a greater extent than ever before, individuals can choose whether to form a family on their own, in a cohabiting relationship or in a marriage” (Cherlin 2005). There will be more couples who choose to not marry but live together and have children, more single moms, and more homosexual couples with children. “…as gays and lesbians create their own families, the numbers are increasing. According to statistics from the coalition, about 67% of lesbians have children, compared with 72% of straight women. About 27% of gay men have children, compared with 60% of straight men” (Carroll 2000). With America becoming more liberated and gays and lesbians acquiring more rights the numbers will continue to rise.

Some people say children should not grow up with homosexual parents because children need a female and a male in their life to be raised correctly. This is not the case. Children of gay and lesbian parents may be raised differently, but in a good way. “…daughters of lesbian and gay parents are more assertive, confident, and ambitious, while sons are less conforming to traditional notions of masculine aggression and domination, and more fluid in their gender identities” ( Kimmel 2004 p 153). If gays and lesbians continue to earn more rights there will be more children that are raised to be confident and caring. Same sex couples are also less likely to separate because they get along better than opposite sexes. They also share responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, and raising the kids better than traditional marriages.

Single parents are becoming more and more common also. Women are becoming more independent and are able to support themselves. Only a few decades ago it was normal for women to be housewives and be dependent upon their husbands financially. As more and more women attend college, there is no need for marriage and a husband. “Many single parents are better educated and are able to support themselves so marriage is no longer a financial prerequisite to parenthood. Under enormous work-pressure families are splitting-up and giving rise to single parenthood” (K 2000). It is ironic that women are working more to be able to support their families and have what they want, but working is what is causing the family problems. Women can afford to take care of themselves and a child now, and it is becoming more and more accepted by society. In
2050 it will be much more common and women will be free to make their own choice about parenting without the ridicule of society.

Cohabiting is also becoming very common. “And forty percent of all cohabiting households include children” (Kimmel 2004 p 126). Couples are finding marriage unnecessary. Having children out of wedlock and males and females living together is becoming more common and accepted. “For growing numbers of couples, cohabitation is now becoming an alternative to marriage or being single. Many couples seem to be living together longer without marrying or ending their relationship” (Grabmeier 2004). This trend is expected to rise over the next couple years. Couples believe it is easier to break up when they don’t have to go through the courts and split everything up. The only negative is insurance. Both people need to have medical coverage because without marriage they won’t be covered under the other’s plan. “Overall, more than a third of births in the United States are to unmarried women, up from one-fifth in 1980” (Sege 2007).

Overall, families will be pretty much the same in the year 2050. With women and gays and lesbians gaining more and more rights as indviduals, families will continue to change slightly. Women are inddepent and can choose whether to have a child and whether to do it with a male, female, by herself, adopt etc. Birth control has also had a big impact on smaller families. The nuclear families that were the norm a few decades ago, will be just as common as gay and lesbian families, single mothers, and cohabiting couples.

Bonner, Joseph. “By the Year 2050, Human Population Could Add 2.6 Billion People, Reports Rockefeller Scientist” Rockefeller University. November 13, 2003. http://www.eurekalert.org/

Carroll, Jonathan David. “The New Nuclear Family. What Was Once Inconceivable” The Austin Chronicle. August 28, 2000. http://weeklywire.com/

Cherlin, Andrew J. “American Marriage in Early Twenty First Century” The Future Of Children Magazine. Volume 15, Number 2. Fall 2005

Grabmeier, Jeff. “Cohabiting Couples Not Likely to Marry, Study Finds” Ohio State: Research News. February 2, 2004.

K. Praathi, “Single Parent- Norm in the Future?” XML. 2000

Kimmel, Michael S. The Gendered Society: Second Edition. Oxford University Press. 2004.

Sege, Irene, “Unmarried with Children: Number of Cohabiting Couples With Kids is on the Rise” The Boston Globe. July 24, 2007. www.huffingtonpost.com