The Filipino Family Confronts the Modern World
The Filipino Family Confronts the Modern World
This article focuses on the changes that Filipino Family encounters because of the fast development of technology that affects our entire life. The Filipino Family has had to confront the pressures of modernization and constantly redefine its role in a rapidly changing society. Varied though the responses have been, they all reflect one theme – rising aspirations. For the masses this means an awakening desire to divert material benefits currently out of reach into their range of acquisition.
The family symbolizes anxiety and security. On the one hand, it embraces its members lovingly and without reservation. On the other, it creates crises for them by inculcating norms and behaviors often in conflict with the standards of other sectors of society. Preparing a child for his adult place in society and maintaining that integration, once made, constitute the major daily concerns of family life. Overall patterns of similarity are discernible and merit consideration as crucial to an understanding of the family in modern Philippine life namely: 1) The Roles of Men and Women; 2) The Parent-Child Relationship; 3) Extended Kinship and the Nuclear Family. First was the Role of Men and Women, the stereotyped view of the Filipina’s role in her society is primarily that of the solicitous mother guarding the interests of her many children and watchful lest her husband be distracted from the primary task of devoting his income to the unit’s welfare. Man is the pivotal member. As a symbolic head, the family establishes its unity and identity. Leadership, discipline over children, and the voicing of decisions are male prerogatives, with the wife acting as helpmate. His earnings provide the baseline for economic security, while the contacts he develops with others in the larger society can make or break the family fortunes. The woman, on the other hand, holds the family together by managing the household and directing the lives of
This article focuses on the changes that Filipino Family encounters because of the fast development of technology that affects our entire life. The Filipino Family has had to confront the pressures of modernization and constantly redefine its role in a rapidly changing society. Varied though the responses have been, they all reflect one theme – rising aspirations. For the masses this means an awakening desire to divert material benefits currently out of reach into their range of acquisition.
The family symbolizes anxiety and security. On the one hand, it embraces its members lovingly and without reservation. On the other, it creates crises for them by inculcating norms and behaviors often in conflict with the standards of other sectors of society. Preparing a child for his adult place in society and maintaining that integration, once made, constitute the major daily concerns of family life. Overall patterns of similarity are discernible and merit consideration as crucial to an understanding of the family in modern Philippine life namely: 1) The Roles of Men and Women; 2) The Parent-Child Relationship; 3) Extended Kinship and the Nuclear Family. First was the Role of Men and Women, the stereotyped view of the Filipina’s role in her society is primarily that of the solicitous mother guarding the interests of her many children and watchful lest her husband be distracted from the primary task of devoting his income to the unit’s welfare. Man is the pivotal member. As a symbolic head, the family establishes its unity and identity. Leadership, discipline over children, and the voicing of decisions are male prerogatives, with the wife acting as helpmate. His earnings provide the baseline for economic security, while the contacts he develops with others in the larger society can make or break the family fortunes. The woman, on the other hand, holds the family together by managing the household and directing the lives of