1. пустоNowadays the family life is not similar to that stable one which used to be in the past.
We did feel far more stability in our lives, because you see in these days, I think, there’s always a concern that families will separate or something, but in those days nobody expected the families to separate. Of course, there may have been smoking, drinking and drug-taking years ago, but it was all kept very quiet, nobody new anything about it. These days there really isn’t the family life that we used to have. The children seem to do more as they like whether they know it’s right or wrong. Things are very different I think. Today people are much closer to their parents and talk about everything, which we didn’t. But we were much more disciplined and we went about as a family.
Gertrude Smith, 70
2. пустоIt doesn’t do children a lot of good to get too much of discipline.
Discipline needs to be there in a certain amount but too much of it can be a bad thing, I think, and I certainly do get too much of it occasionally. I wouldn’t be as strict as my dad was, definitely not, because I don’t think that works. That only makes you rebel. Me and my parents, we never used to get on, we used to fight all the time. We never liked one another, especially with my dad.
Thomas Wheeler, 17
3. пустоThe possibilities to work enable you have a more equal relationship.
My husband and I have very equal relationship at the moment because we’ve both worked, and we’ve been together for 11 years and we met at university, we started work on the same day. We both bring an income into the family, into the household. I see it as being a much more equal relationship than my parents had. My mother, although actually had the probably stronger relationship on a day-to-day decision making thing, but she was actually in the supporting role to my father. I mean her life revolved around us and him. I’d say we were an updated version of our parents. I think, our moral code is very similar to them and our priorities are probably quite similar, the only difference being that we have a more equal relationship because we’ve both worked.
Ruth Jones, 30
4. пустоNow there are great changes in the attitude to family life including the male‑female roles.
Society has changed a lot. As well as technology leading to great changes, people’s roles have changed very much, in particular, the women’s movement has very much questioned the role of women and led many women to demand a freer choice about who they are and how they can be. There’s a lot of frustration with how men haven’t changed, we need to find ways of appreciating the efforts men are making to be more involved with their children. In the past there were arranged marriages. And now people are getting married out of love and there’s a kind of feeling that your love is there, and it will stay there forever and we don’t have to work at it. I think, helping people learn to work at their relationships to make their relationship work would be a significant thing that I’d like to see happening.
Tim Khan, 42