Family Law Issues Essay, Research Paper

FAMILY LAW INTRODUCTION ESSAY

Changing Family values, the role of family in contemporary society and constructive ideas for family life as we enter the 21st century.

I definitely agree with the fact that family life has been altered significantly in the past decade. The role of the family has been altered primarily due to a lack of several key instruments in family connection. In today’s society the family seems to suffer from a serious lack of respect for one another, a lack of discipline, lack of spiritual values, lack of family time/communication (quality time) and a lack of full family units (both fathers and mothers present in the household).

Due to the absence of these key instruments there has been an enormous change within the American household. In order to remain current, the face of Family Law had to change as well. Touching upon the issue of spousal mayhem, with an example being the O.J. case, without placing any focus on innocence or guilt, I think it can obviously be stated that this relationship lacked respect. There were many issues/incidents surrounding this couple which indicated a very unhealthy relationship. Once a relationship does not possess or either has lost its core values, such as respect and self-discipline, it becomes an unhealthy relationship with very little boundaries, the fine lines have become vague, anger festers and the potential for violence in such a relationship is quite common. The law must now focus upon these issues. The limitations have been changed. The fine lines have to be crossed. In cases such as the O.J. case there are very sensitive and sometimes quite humiliating issues that the law must address. The O.J. case is one amongst many which have moved the laws focus of respecting the family, and primarily trying to reunite them to having to dig deeper into the psyche of each individual and more so analyze the family’s value system and base its decision more on safety as oppose to morality issues.

Today’s parenting has also played a key role in revision of the legal system as it relates to family law. Due to the increasing amount of child abuse cases, there has been a great amount of emphasis placed upon the disciplinary actions of parents today. In today’s society with drug abuse being more prevalent and single family households becoming more common, the pressures of child rearing have dramatically increased. Where we once had fathers and mothers running the household, we now have a mother or a father with little to no support from one another. We also have drug addicted parents who are themselves in need of help and therefore unable to care for their children properly. The stress of raising a child alone, and the state of mind that drug abuse can place an individual in, are sometimes the key ingredient to child abuse violence. Children who are victims of child abuse rarely emerge from their childhood without some type of psychological damage. As a result of this damage, they will sometimes in turn become either angry or violent individuals themselves. This damage can sometimes fester for years or even be very unapparent until a violent situation occurs and brings such damage to light. As we enter into the 21st century, It is my opinion that our contemporary society desperately needs to

re-introduce the “old fashion” value system back into society. Such values being respecting one another. Not placing so much emphasis on weather or not we have the “legal right” to do or state something, but placing more emphasis on how another individual will feel as a result of us doing so. Re-introduce spiritual values. Focus on maintaining a complete family unit with core family values. This is very important, yet quite downplayed. The family unit as a whole is important because it gives a child the feeling of completeness. Yes, a woman is quite capable of raising a child on her own just as a man is quite capable of raising a child on his own, however, that does not make it a very good idea to do so. I think that our society has strayed very far from the “basics.” If we simply begin to reach back and pull out some of the wholesome, old fashion ideas that represent “the good old days”, we will, as a society, begin to repair what we have spent so much time destroying. There are many ways to go about doing this, there are many ideas of the past that we can reuse and there are many programs that we can implement in order to reach such a goal. We just have to utilize our resources in other ways. Spend our tax dollars on the implementation of more programs that are geared toward bringing not only the family but society as a whole, back “together.”