Unit A Blog #4

I do not think that there are any certain characteristics of a "good family life." It is all in the eyes of the beholder, because if you think that your way of life is good and it makes you happy than who is to tell you that you are wrong and would try to push their views upon you? A family life can be good on a lot of different levels, as long as the children in the family enjoy their life, because childhood cannot be replaced.

A career life and a family life can be successfully mixed as long as both can be mixed. For instance, some jobs will allow for you to talk to your loved ones on the phone, which is great and makes for a pleasant work and family relationship. Other jobs that it is not possible to communicate with your loved ones while on the job can also work out just fine though, as work for the day can be left at work and when you get home the attention shifts to the people who you care for and the people that are considered to be your family. There is no right or wrong way to balance these two lives, and people make it happen all across the world everyday by making certain sacrifices.

A mix of these two can be difficult to achieve if you have a very demanding job, such as one that requires you to constantly be focused on the work place and do work from home. A job that requires travel can also make home life a little more difficult. To me it seems that the idea of the family having a breadwinner is a thing of the past and that today's society allows for a healthy mix of work and family with more couples both attending work regularly. Like I said before though, there is no right or wrong way to attempt to balance these things.

I would say that the only thing that becomes more complex by gender work equality would be the fact that the child or children do not have the constant emotional attachment to say, a stay at home mom, and perhaps they have to spend a lot more time with after school programs or nannies, or babysitters. This definitely shows that there is a change going on but at the same time it is almost necessary in this day and age to have both members of the couple working if they want to have things like a house and if they want to be able to put food on the table for their kids. Other than that i think that this will soon not be considered complex, but rather the norm for families attempting to live in what is considered a middle class, or even lower class way of life, but it is hard to leave a class, even without a caste system.

There are many ways in which an employer can be more open to the needs of their employees when it comes to their family lives. Things like at work day cares, or even the simple ability to contact your loved ones from the place you work makes it easier to do the balance act of work and home at the same time. I'm sure that more jobs will attempt to make changes so that their employees can provide for home too, but in a place like the US where capitalism is the way of life, it is hard for these employers to even want their workers having home life at work because it could effect their job performance. Which is a sacrifice they are not willing to make in most cases.

Support is something that is considered good in most walks of life, it is the thing that keeps you going when you feel like it is time to give up. If every person in this world cared more about each other and was more willing to help without really asking "whats in it for me?" then we could essentially reach a harmony in the world. The balancing of priorities would become that much easier, and the world would be a better place.