Traditional Beliefs About Motherhood

Growing up I lived in a one parent household. There was me, my brother and my mom. I did not question the fact that I did not have a father, because this was all I knew. I recall when I started going to some of my friends’ houses and I saw they had both a dad and a mom. Some of my friends had two working parents; while others had one. In some families the dad worked and in some families the mom worked. I was not knowledgeable on gender roles, and did not know about the “traditional family”. My mother was single and did everything a mom and a dad would do. She worked and came home and cooked and cleaned. She took out the trash as well as barbequed on the Fourth of July. So needless to say I have never believed that mothers had a particular role in a family. Now that I am older it interest me to see what some of the traditional beliefs about motherhood were; as well as how the traditional roles of motherhood has changed throughout the years.
Through media and other outlets both mothers and fathers have been given a specific role in the family. With popular shows from the 1950’s we see a family were the husband works and the mother is a stay at home mom. In this type of family the mother does all of the chores around the house, as well as take care of the children, she is also dependent on …show more content…
So today we see that parents actually spend more time with their kids. The reason is because in the 60’s kids would spend more time with their friends, watching television, or playing then being in direct contact with their mother. Although kids spend more time with stay at home moms, they still spend more time with working moms, then stay at home moms in the 60’s. So we see that although more mothers are choosing to work, they are not neglecting their children. Another area that has been divided based on gender is