In general, traditional family ties are weakening. What effect is this trend likely to have on your society? (Dec 1980)

Family forms are shaped by the attitudes toward gender roles in a given society which, in turn, are influenced by the demographic, social, economic, and political realities of the time. The traditional family, idealized during the Victorian era and reestablished in the 1950s, is identified as a unit consisting of a married couple with two or more children where the breadwinning father goes out to work while the mother stays home to keep house and care for the children and her husband. Nowadays, traditional family ties are weakening. This affect Singapore tremendously.
In traditional family, people treat divorcing as an embarrass thing. Couples will continue to stay together even though they may found themselves unsuitable to each other. In fact they will never think about divorcing. Nowadays people are more open and divorcing is common. When couples keep quarrelling they may think divorcing as a way out. This also make people less prudent in choosing their partners. This is because they can divorce from their spouses when they found their spouses are unsuitable to themselves after a period of time. This is why divorcing rate have increased drastically over years. A stable society needs stable families. However with increasing divorcing rate, the unstableness in the society grows. For example, some children from divorce familes are lack of parental love and care. This will affect their character development and social behaviour, such as teenage crime.
Filial piety is one of the essential component in traditional family. It is a responsibility, or a must for all children to look after their parents when their parents are old and uncabable to work. This is the time which the next generation takes turn to support the whole family. However nowadays, when the family ties are no longer strong and the traditional families values are no longer grained into most people’s mind, fosterage of parents is not a must for most children, but a way of showing their positive personal characters. Because of this, in Singapore itself, more and more parents, or elderlies, are abandoned by their children. These children felt that their parents are burden of their life. They are afraid that their parents will become financially dependent on them. The lost of traditional values seems only bring miseries to the society.
However, the weakening of family ties gives children more freedom. In the past, children must obey everything from their parents, including their studies, their career, or even their marriage. Nowadays, children are free to choose what to study, and are encouraged to develop interests. They are given the freedom to choose their spouse as well. Only suggestions and advices are given by their parents. This is why nowadays Singapore is full of competition and creativity. This is essential for Singapore’s progress and prosperity.
Moreover, with the weakening of traditional family ties, children are more independent than before. In Singapore, many children move out of the family once they married or become finantially independent. This will allow children to interact with more people thus enlarge their social circle.
There are pros and cons when traditional family ties are weakening. The best way out is to keep the good traditional family values and to allow a certain extent of freedom. Traditional family values should not be abandoned but it should not be too rigid. Freedom of children should be given which children should decide for themselves how their lives should be. There must be a balance between traditional family and modern family in order for the society to progress.