In modern day America, television shows aim to create shows that are relatable to people’s real lives. One of the most common, and most recurring, type of show centers around families. There are many different dynamics in today’s nuclear families, creating a variety of parent-child relationships. A “traditional” nuclear family, for the purpose of this blog, is a family in which there are two married parents and their children. The television show “7th Heaven” sets a good example of a “traditional” nuclear family. Other family dynamics such as single-parent families are also very common. The television show, “Gilmore Girls” is a good example for a single-parent household. And Modern Family has become an example of the possibilities that families can exist in today’s society. Through the parent-child relationships, they show the different ways that parents and their children interact.
The Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls is a comedy-drama that shows the relationship
of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, a single-mom and her teenage daughter. The show follows Rory’s journey through high
school and college and the way she interacts with her mom, who had Rory when
she was 16. The show portrays how
Lorelai takes on being a mom to her child, who over the years, has become like
her best friend. The two struggle to
have a parent and daughter relationship as Rory matures and acts more like the
adult than her mother. Over time, Rory
starts to act more like the mother in many episodes. Her mom will sometimes ask Rory for
permission or even signs that says that Rory is okay with her decisions. But on many occasions, Lorelai is the parent
and the caring parent. She is shown as
the woman who doesn’t want her daughter to make the same mistakes that she
made, although she is grateful.
In another episode, Lorelai has role strain because she wants to be Rory’s best friend. Lorelai wants Rory to confide in her and talk to her about anything and everything. And at the same time, Lorelai also has to be the parent. She has to be the one in charge. Lorelai has to discipline Rory and yet still maintain the “friend” status. After sending Rory off to college at Yale, Lorelai receives
a page from Rory to go back to Yale. And
like a good mother, Lorelai returns to see Rory because she missed her after
being away for five minutes. When
Lorelai returns, Rory cries and Lorelai consoles Rory. But instead of staying the night, Lorelai
orders different kinds of food and invites girls on Rory’s floor to join the
party and leaves when Rory is having a good time. This episode is an example of Lorelai being a
caring mom and also being a friend to Rory.
Lorelai takes care of her daughter and is also the friend that she needs
during the tough transition. 
And sometimes Rory acts more like adult than her mother. In season 2, Rory goes to New York to find her
boyfriend and misses her mom’s graduation from business school. While that act was very childish, Rory grounds
herself for missing the graduation while her mother doesn’t seem to mind.
During season 3, Lorelai and Rory share their relationship
problems with each other and yet Lorelai finds out that Rory didn’t have sex
with her boyfriend by eavesdropping on a conversation. While the two share everything, Lorelai is
still a concerned mother.
While the life of Lorelai and Rory is strange and not
normal, the values instilled in Rory by her mom are somewhat traditional. Lorelai asked her parents to help for Rory’s
private schooling and in return, they had to have a relationship with Lorelai’s
parents. As a result, every Friday
night, Lorelai and Rory eat dinner with Lorelai’s parents. This arrangement is an example of how Lorelai has instilled the value of family in Rory. The situation allows Rory to spend time with her grandparents as well as her mother.
Lorelai and Rory have a relationship that is unique to their situation. Lorelai had Rory when she was still a teenager and can still relate to everything Rory is going through. This show has shown audiences the relationship between a single parent and their child. But like all parent-child relationships, the Gilmore girls go through their rough patches and still make up in the end.
Lorelai and Rory have a relationship that is unique to their situation. Lorelai had Rory when she was still a teenager and can still relate to everything Rory is going through. This show has shown audiences the relationship between a single parent and their child. But like all parent-child relationships, the Gilmore girls go through their rough patches and still make up in the end.
The Camden Family
The
television show, “7th Heaven” portrays a nuclear family that follows the
“traditional family” roles. The show centers on the Camden family. The father,
Reverend Eric Camden, his wife Annie, and their seven children (in order of
age), Matt, Marry, Lucy, Simon, Ruthie, Sam and David, and the dog, Happy.The
family is greatly influenced by religion, as the father, Eric, is a Minister at
their local Protestant church. Every episode deals with themes of morality and
with issues such as drugs, alcohol, pre-marital sex, menstruation, teen
pregnancy, etc. The parents always seek out the advice of each other when it
comes to decisions about their children and their family. The Camden children
come in all ages, giving different relationships between the children and
parents.
The parent-child
relationships in the Camden family appear to be strong even through the hardest
times. Eric and Annie work together to raise their children with good morals
and the knowledge to deal with situations as they come. Eric and Annie trust
their children to make the right decisions. They give what seems to be fair
punishments, giving their kid(s) a lecture of their wrong doing, and then
sentencing them to some type of grounding and/or taking away an item of the
children’s. The children in the Camden family often confide in their parents,
showing that there is mutual trust between the parents and children. The
married Eric and Annie, having each other to confide in, make the child rearing
easier on both parents. Rather than having one parent playing one role, Eric
and Annie share and even exchange roles sometimes.
In one episode,
Eric finds a marijuana joint in the house and immediately suspects Matt but
Annie warns him not to run to conclusions. So, Eric and Annie sit all of the
kids down and asks them who it belongs to. Eric has a hard time keeping his
cool and when Matt admits it was his, Eric doesn't give him a chance to
explain. Matt runs out of the house with Eric fuming with anger. Later in the
episode, Annie talks to Eric about how he handled the situation. Matt comes
home and instead of Eric talking to him, Annie sits him down and has an
intimate conversation. Annie discloses that she had smoked marijuana in high
school at a party. She tells Matt how her best friend's boyfriend drove after
the party and was killed in a car accident. Matt leaves, angry at his mom. At
the end of the episode, we find Matt running into their church, sit down, and
start praying. This is an example of how religion aids in the parenting of the
Camden children
The television
show, “7th Heaven” and the Camden family set a good example of what the
majority of families in the United States wish or dream to be like. The
parent-child relationships are so strong that even in the toughest of times, in
the end, they worked out. The mutual respect and trust the children have for their
parents and the parents for their children create a good connection between the
parents and the children. The ease of the upper middle class, married, nuclear
family, creates ease in the relationships between parent and child.
Jay and Manny
In the ABC hit, Modern Family, we observed the relationship between the
characters Jay and Manny. Manny is a middle school boy and Jay is his much
older stepfather. Because of his flaky birth father, Manny lacks a true father
figure. Jay steps in and tries to
be a father for Manny. Jay and
Manny have a very interesting relationship. The fact that Manny and Jay are
incredibly different is key in the culture of their relationship. Jay is more of a manly man. He’s into
sports, drinking beer and playing pool. Unlike Jay, Manny is very mature for
his age and is more interested in love, books, and culture. In once scene Manny
tells his mother, Gloria, “I want
to quit soccer, it’s a game for children.” These differences have an effect of
their relationship because Jay doesn’t want Manny to act so sensitive and
continuously pushes him into activities that are more masculine.
In another scene, Manny is talking about how
he wants to dress up and go see this older girl (a 16 year old) at the mall and
tell her how much he loves her. Instituting
his “tough love” antics, Jay tells Manny if he goes to the mall and confesses
his love, he will surely get beat up by the guys at school. His main goal is to
toughen up Manny and teach him to be a strong, silent male like himself.
The culture of their household is much different from the traditional
family. Their age difference is a
main part of their relationship.
Manny is Jay’s third child (he has 2 older children and 4
grandchildren). Because he has had
children before and has seen them make mistakes, Jay tries to stop Manny from
making silly mistakes. In one
scene with his wife, Jay says that he is only hard on Manny because he doesn’t
want him to make a fool of myself. Gloria, Manny’s mother and Jay’s wife, plays a significant
role in the interaction between the two characters. From Manny’s birth, Gloria has been heavily involved and
overbearing, but not to Manny’s displeasure. He considers his mom his best friend and has more in common with
her than his father or stepfather.
Because he has been influenced by such a strong female figure, it seems obvious
that he would obtain these sensitive characteristics. Gloria also pushes Manny and Jay into doing things together
such as putting a ceiling fan together. This activity displays a classic
example of their relationship. Manny continuously warns Jay about the safety
hazards of not reading the instructions and Jay yells at him to just “let him
do what he wants.” If one were to
just read the dialogue, one could assume that this scene was between two older
adults or even between a male and a female; it would be rare that one would
guess it was between a father and son. 
Not only did we want to examine the
culture of these different relationships but we also wanted to look at the
social interaction. Let’s first look at Jay; his status is to be a father and
husband. His roles are to be the
provider, teach his son lessons and also enjoy being a man in his late
years. Jay exhibits role strain
when he wants to fly his remote control airplanes but also has to bring Manny
along and teach him. This once relaxing hobby is now bombarded with questions
and comments. Jay, being a strong
male, has a difficult time of controlling his temper when he is dealing with
role strain. Manny on the other
hand is completely opposite from his stepfather. His status is to be a son. His roles are to act like a kid,
be carefree and also do his school work.
Manny consistently deals with role strain because of his maturity. He wants to be grown up, drink coffee
and read the paper but he is just ten years old. He is never satisfied with being a child and always tries to
act more grown up.
The relationship between Jay and
Manny is very complex. Jay doesn’t
seem to know how to handle Manny and his sensitivity and Manny gets frustrated
with Jay and his lack of awareness for what’s going on around him. Their
relationship is definitely one of the most entertaining ones in Modern Family
and always provides good laughs for the audience.
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