TV Families

Family is just about the most important thing as far as this life is concerned if you ask me. Why is it then that when family is portrayed by the media and tv shows, all the families have dysfunctional families? I have a few theories. 1.) There are dysfunctional families and they don't want to watch shows about perfect families. 2.) People want to show what the family dynamic has become. 3.) They are idealizing the messed up family.

Where did the dysfunctional family dynamic start showing up on television? I think the first time a mixed family, or family that actually argued showed up on television was in the 70's with the Brady Bunch. This mostly happy family sitcom was one of the first families that wasn't mom, dad, and children Beaver Cleaver family dynamic. The Brady bunch had a mother named Carol, she had three daughters, but her first husband died. Then Carol met Mike Brady who had three sons of his own. The two parents fell in love and mixed the two families together. It showed a few difficulties that could occur from having a mixed family. The kids were definitely separated for the most part into girls and boys. I feel like that is the way things are in many families that come from separate families. Another show that showed a more modern dynamic to the mixed family is Life With Derek. This was a Disney Channel show that used to air. A mother with her two daughters married a lawyer with two sons and a young daughter. The five children all had to get used to each other and to the new parent. Casey the oldest daughter in the family was often correcting the two parents on their parenting skills, because she thought she could do a better job. She also believed that the life she had with her first father was better than the current life that she was living. Lizzie, Casey's younger sister, was more willing to become a part of the whole family. She made friends with Edwin the middle brother of her new family. Marty was very young and quickly adjusted to the new family dynamic, but Casey and Derek had the hardest time adjusting to the new life.

Is this family dynamic realistic? Or is is just to make people think that is the way a mixed family is like? I think that it's pretty accurate. Of the families that had step parents and siblings often separated, sometimes subconsciously to their original family, rather than joining the new unit. Yes television is glamorized and ends every show with the kids growing closer at the end and showing a nice new bond. That doesn't always happen in real life- I'm not bashing mixed families many turn out to be fantastic, but it isn't always a 30 minute happy ending sitcom.

Another family style that is popularly portrayed on television is the single parent. It has been portrayed both as a mother and her children, and as a father with his children. In many Disney Channel shows and original movies there is one parent, either because the parents got a divorce or one of the parents died. In The Suite Life of Zach and Cody the two twin boys are being raised by their mother. She got a divorce for her musician husband that is always on the road and too busy to be a parent. The boys get into minor trouble, and Mr. Mosby one of the employees at the Tipton hotel where the family lives, often tells Zach that he will end up in jail if he keeps behaving the way he does. I'm not sure if this is actually based upon real families with a single parent, but that is what Mr. Mosby says. Then there is also the show iCarly on Nickelodeon, that also shows the effects of a single parent dynamic. Unlike the Suite Life, Carly the child on iCarly is being raised by her older Brother Spencer who is 20-something, because Carly's mom died and her father is at war. Carly is given plenty of love by her brother, but she is definitely not getting the discipline that many other kids would get for doing things that she does. She often stays out very late, and she also has her friends living at her house, and she sneaks into private places. I realize that it is just a tv show, but it does show a possible effect of a broken family.

As for my questions that I had at the beginning of this Blog- I do think that due to the 50% divorce rate in America the broken family and mixed families have become a novelty. People want to be able to relate to the people that are on television. Because so many families are mixed, matched, and broken in America the media has tailor made their shows to appeal to those families. I think that these shows are also intended to portray to adults and children what the American family has become. I think that it helps kids that are growing up in a broken home to feel better about their situation. And I think it makes kids that aren't living in a broken family to idealize those families.

Is it wrong to turn something that Christians as a whole consider wrong into a commodity? Is television effecting the divorce rate? Should there be more shows that portray "regular" families? I don't know. I don't know. And I don't know. I personally feel like the television should be taken a source of entertainment. Think of it as a fictional story. It is not real, and it isn't something that isn't supposed to be replicated. Even "regular" and "stable" tv families still aren't a realistic way of living on the most part. I'm not saying that a mixed or broken family is bad. It all depends on the groups situation. I also am not saying that all stable families or families with married parents are any better or worse than a single parent. It's just odd to me that the family dynamic is different for everyone. Nobody's family is exactly like mine. And my family isn't exactly like everyone elses'. I just hope everybody can love the people that are called their family and to support each other in what is best for them.

That's hard to do most days of the week, but family should be a group of people that all have the best interest for everybody else. Don't forget what really matters.