The Nuclear Family: The Ideal American Family

The ideal family from the American perspective has traditionally been known as the nuclear family by sociologists. The nuclear family, consisting of a married couple and their unmarried children, materialized as a romantic ideal as the Industrial Revolution transformed the United States into a country where families didn’t have to depend on many children and extended families for help on a farm or financial stability and families got smaller. Wealthier families could afford to have a home for themselves and their family of procreation (an individual, their mate, and their children) without needing the financial support of additional family members, and this kind of a family became desirable. Additionally, some other characteristics of the ‘ideal American family’ became popular and commonplace in the US and around the world as well.
More common internationally is the family that follows a pattern of patrilineal descent, where close relatives are seen as the family of a person’s father, as they inherit their father’s family name, and inheritance is passed down from father to son. The patriarchal system of authority within the family is also quite international, entailing the head of a household being the oldest male, and patriarchal families sometimes place a mature son’s authority over that of his mother and sisters, as well. For a few centuries, this type of family has been idealized, strived for, and represented in the media. However, some sociologists believe that its popularity may be dying as new alternative families arise and gain