It all started with the "Nuclear Family" ideal. At the beginning of the brave new atomic age, in the 1950's, it was thought that the family should consist of a male, a female and two kids.Then came the 1960's and people found free love, but didn't realise, then, that it would have to be paid for later.
Yes, there were anti birth pills, there had always been "something for the weekend" from your men's barbers shop. Unfortunately many people were so stoned that they either forgot to get and take the 'pill' or use a condom. The risk was a buzz and made sex more exciting to some. Like Russian Roulette, will this bullet fire or be blank? So a birth explosion happened and single parents were no longer outcasts but becoming the norm.
Then came the 1970's and 1980's and the rise of the Wummins movement. Why not Mummy 1 and Mummy 2?
Then the gay 1990's arrived and why not Dad 1 and Dad 2?
Now every old taboo has been broken. We have cross ethnic births and adoptions. Some kids born "naturally" and "normally" in family groups where Mum or Dad is now declared to be gay, having come out. But they may have liked the family ideal no matter what their sexuality and had more kids via surrogates. Everything has become one big melting pot with any and every possibility coming out of it. But who pays when it all falls apart?It is all very well to sit atop an Ivory Tower and pontificate that marriage is over, just have an intimate commune. Each commune can interact and community will develope as they all grow organically from the new roots. Phrases like 'get back to basics' are bandied about. Big is no longer beautiful. The eco family has arrived.
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