assignment 8

1. According to Hochschild, what is the “Second Shift?”
According to Hochschild, the “Second Shift” is the household work that must done after two people have worked a full-time job during the day. Examples of this include shopping, cleaning, cooking, household chores, etc. The “Second Shift” is said to be the second job.

2. Briefly describe the story of Evan and Nancy Holt.
Nancy and Evan do not seem to meet eye-to-eye when it comes to the household work, especially after working a full-time job. Evan would have rather come home from work, watch T.V. and grab a beer. Nancy, on the other hand, was responsible for cleaning and cooking and taking care of Joey. When Nancy proposed the second shift, Evan wanted nothing to do with it because he felt his part in the family was to provide the income and the financial state. When Nancy realized that this second shift could split the two, she decided to forget about it because it wasn’t worth losing their marriage. Instead, they came up with a “myth” where they divided the household work into the upstairs and downstairs. Evan took the downstairs, which was the garage and the car and also the dog and Nancy was responsible for the upstairs, which consisted of the kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. This seemed to work for them so this is the arrangement that they decided to use.

3. Hochschild argues that families create “myths” about their division of household labor. Describe the family myth created by Nancy and Evan Holt.
The “myth” is a type of solution that doesn’t really solve the problem at hand. Nancy and Evan created the myth of the upstairs-downstairs, which helped split the household work for the two. It was clearly a way to get Evan to help out around the house but Nancy still had more work to tend to being that the upstairs had more components and rooms than the downstairs.

4. According to Hochschild, what is the purpose of family myths?
The purpose of the family myth was basically to create something that would help Nancy and Evan with their housework. It was supposed to be something they could believe in and altogether, make their marriage better.

5. Was this reading surprising to you and why? How do you imagine you will divide family work (including child care) in your own marriage or cohabitation?
This reading was a little bit surprising to me. In today’s society, many two-parent households have both working mothers and fathers, even if the mother is only part-time. It is definitely a hard obstacle in the beginning but I think as time goes on, it may become easier once there are roles designated and a routine is formulated. When I think about the future and my children, I would absolutely love to be a stay-at-home mother, although I know that would not be possible; however, since I am studying to be a teacher, except for the occasional late days, I will most likely be home late afternoon or early evening. The family work would definitely be divided based upon our schedules. One night I may cook; another my husband might. We would take turns doing laundry and cleaning. Although this would be a fairy tale and is extremely optimistic, the chances of this actually happening are, most likely, fairly low.

assignment 7

1. Journal Article.
The article that I found and used for this assignment is called Parental Divorce and Children’s Adjustment. It was found on Ebsco and is from the Perspectives on Psychological Science, Vol 4(2), Mar, 2009. pp. 140-152. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.montclair.edu:2048/ehost/detail?vid=8&hid=2&sid=c2fadeff-658e-48ef-875a-e2252bfdfc60%40sessionmgr10

2. Describe what the divorce statistics mean.
According to the reading by Li, unloving parents can be hazardous to a child’s emotional state and can also cause behavioral problems in the child. The article by Jennifer Lansford also agrees with the statement by Li because, in the article, she states that children experiencing parental divorce are at risk for a variety of negative developmental outcomes.

According to Landford, some of the statistics she found include:
· 25% of individuals whose parents divorce have long-term social, emotional, and psychological problems in adulthood.
· 18% of children whose parents divorce have more marital discord as adults than do children whose parents stayed together

Although there were only a few statistics in this article, I found the first statistic to go against all the other research. It is so common to blame behavioral problems of children on a divorce or on an argument by the parents; however, if only 25% have problems in the long run, then the remaining 75% turns out to be fine, with maybe a problem here or there. Overall, though, children coming from divorced parents do not always have the same problems as another child with divorced parents.

3. Discuss whether or not the research/statistics seem accurate or useful.
This article is definitely useful, especially as a potential teacher or child service worker. Most teachers tend to comfort the child whose parents are going through a divorce, which is the right thing to do; however, if that same child starts misbehaving, the teacher will simply excuse it because of the hard times that he/she is going through. It is imperative to remember that 75% of children from divorced parents do not, in the long run, have developmental problems and therefore, should not be treated differently in the classroom.

4. How could the article be improved.
I think the article could have been improved by including more statistics and more evidence to support the notion of children misbehaving.