• 0 Items - $0.00
    • No products in the cart.
Family-Values-have-changed-over-time-1024×683-compressor

Comparing society 40 years back to activities and happenings of today, I appreciate that family values have changed over time. In our world today, a lot of vices are holding sway and these vices are quickly displacing virtues because we have compromised family values.

Today children are growing up in a society that is technologically driven and are learning at a much faster pace than in the 70s. The fast pace of learning has kept parents lagging in getting a hold of their kid’s moral values and helping them understand what family values used to be.

Family values have changed over time from my perspective, seeing all that is happening in our world today. To better appraise this conclusion let us understand the definition of family values. Family values are traditional values that are passed on from generation to generation within the family that address the family roles, family structure, function, attitude, and ideas. These traditional values are like unwritten codes that guide the actions of individuals. They help people decide what is right or wrong.

The family is a powerful institution with tremendous influence on society, and when these family values become promoted by parents within the family, society will feel the effect.

8 Ways Family Values Have Changed Over Time

Family values have changed over time because there is so much pressure on parents to meet the financial burden of keeping the home running smoothly. This pressure has caused some parents to pass the responsibility of raising their kids to society, inadvertently. This reversal in the role is the reason there is decadence in our society today.

Kids do not understand where the line diverges into good and evil. Society tosses them around as it yearns for control and direction above the family.

So how has family values changed over time?

Let’s carefully dig into this.

1. Avoid Bad Company

Living by example is the greatest teacher of all time. Raising kids is a hard job, and to raise kids to follow your teachings you must live the life you want them to emulate.

While I was growing up, parents were constantly watching over their kids and correcting them when they went wrong. One of the advice parents gives their kids then, was, do not follow a bad company. Parents wanted to find out the background of their kid’s friends. When parents found out that their kid’s friends were lacking in morals, they tactfully cut off such a relationship to preserve the family values they are inculcating in their kids.

They knew and believed that evil company was a threat to good manners. Parents knew also that iron sharpens iron. They knew the importance of family values and will go the extra mile to preserve them.
Family values have changed over time and for parents to restore these family values, we need to pay close attention to the company our kids associate with.

2. Neglect of Family Prayer

The family that prays together stays together. I have heard this word several times while I was growing up. First, we need to understand what prayer is all about. My catechism teaches me that prayer is a continual lifting of one’s mind and heart to God.

We can express it in thoughts or words. While growing up, I used to see my Dad come to the altar in the sitting room to pray. This is not a one-off thing, it happens every single day it was part of his morning mindset and as I grew up, at 5; every Saturday, my mum will wake us up to join in the family prayer.

After each prayer session, we will open our Bibles and one family member will read the bible before the prayer session ends. Unfortunately, most parents have forgotten the place of prayer in the family. This lack of understanding of the role of prayer in the family has caused most kids to view prayer from a fresh perspective.

The resultant effect of neglect and lack of understanding of what prayer is and does are kids that do not know God. And families that are in disarray. This disarray is clear in the situation where father and mother are not on talking terms even as they live in the same house. This disarray also shows in families where kids pampered by one parent, view the other parent as one who does not love them.

The reintroduction of family prayer will help restore those family values that have kept most families together to the benefit of society.

3. Immodest Dressing/Behaviour

While I was growing up in the 70s, the word “immodest dressing” seemed not to be part of the English dictionary because parents were conscious of what their kids wear both at home and in public. Good mothers always teach their kids how to sit, with both legs closed, whether their daughters wore trousers or skirts. Good mothers always make sure their female kids wore tops that cover their cleavages so that they do not expose sensitive parts of their body.

Those mothers who allow their kids to wear immodest dresses were answerable to other women who viewed them as societal problems. These wonderful women made sure their female kids avoid such bad company.

Today all these have changed, the percentage of kids who dressed immodestly outweigh those who dressed modestly. Now the few kids who still dress modestly are being intimidated by the majority who dress immodestly, making the good kids feel they are the bad ones.

We know this family values have changed over time and parents need to work on this family value, restore it, and make society a better place.

8 ways family values have changed over time

4. Bringing Other People’s Properties To The House

Back in the days, parents were very attentive to their kid’s possessions and will want to know where the kid got that property or toy in their possession, they did not buy for their kids. Good parents will not allow their kids to come home with something that does not belong to them without asking questions.

When we cherished family values, parents will take the pain to find out where the kid got that toy or possession from.

Parents are too busy these days to even notice what their kids are watching on TV. Let alone ask questions on where the kids got the property or possession they have with them not bought by their parents. This is one area that family values have changed over time.

5. Helping Those in Need

One family value that is being eroded is teaching kids to help those in need, especially other kids. When I hear in the news of kids fighting another kid and eventually killing that kid, I shiver.

What is the world turning into? Those kids who murder other kids, don’t they have parents? What family values did their parents teach them about the sanctity of human life? We should teach our kids to help other kids who are in need. Kids who partake in violent acts or actions will cause pain to other kids.

Society will be better off if we do our work as parents.

6. Celebrate Hard work

The celebration of mediocrity and laziness in a way results from lost family values. In the society where I come from, we celebrate mediocrity more than other virtues.

We celebrate those who drive expensive cars and those who steal public funds. People also celebrate those who wear expensive jewelry and those who wear expensive perfumes.

We do not celebrate our teachers and those who do not have so much money. Instead, we worship wealth. Parents need to reorient the thinking of their kids to understand that hard work pays. Stealing public funds is as evil as undermining the common good. We should teach our kids that there is no shortcut to success and that if they work hard and put in the effort, they will succeed.

7. Family eating together

Back in the day, family eating was a communion. Parents and kids get to understand one another at the table. Kids take this opportunity to share their challenges and needs with their parents. They also learn to say the prayers before and after meals.

Nowadays, most families do not even appreciate the need for eating together. They have lost the only opportunity they have to interact with their kids.

8. Sanctity of Married Life

This is one family value that has changed over time. Back in the day, marriage was for better for worse, in richer and poorer till death separates them. Parents will always advise their kids on how to live in marriage; most times they inform the kids to take a cue from them on how they (their parents) are living happily.

In our present society, marriage is now for convenience. Impatience and intolerance are the new norms in marriage. We should restore the family value that respects and upholds marriage as an institution that should last a lifetime.

If family values have changed over time, it is because parents are paying less attention to what their kids are doing wrong. They have also inculcated the “it does not matter” attitude.

Let me know what family values have changed in your world. You can leave me a comment.

Join the community of those who recharge their minds and live their dream. Remember, your mind is like a battery, you either recharge it or it will run down and go flat.

Charles is a storyteller of fast-paced suspense thrillers

Comments(3)

  1. […] Family values have changed over time and societal problems have seen an increase. These family values have helped shape civilization. It helped keep the world safe and made it a better place. […]

    • Duncan Grover

    • 3 years ago

    I agree with most of what you say but I have paid a terrible price for wanting to follow the example set by my beloved parents. I am 53 and it has led to a life of loneliness and social rejection and I am hated by most of my relations. I feel that it started when my generation were growing up in the 70s, most of whom were less influenced by their parents and more influenced by the societal culture instigated by the Great Unwashed rock bands, many of which were on drugs, that just wanted to encourage permissiveness and a general breakdown of all social order in the name of liberty. Now we have parents that believe they must never even criticise their children or it means they are bad parents, let alone, God forbid, give them a smack. And so we have now developed a society of people who are so selfish that they think they are entitled to do whatever they like with no thought as to how they hurt others with their actions. When I look at society today, I feel that today’s children don’t have a chance with the environment they are growing up in. As I read somebody say on another site, “if you live in dirty water, it’s hard to stay clean”. Perhaps it’s for the best that I’m alone and childless.

      • Charles Onwugbene

      • 3 years ago

      Thank you for your perspective. I believe it is a personal choice. And I think our choices should be respected. Warm Regards.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.