How Did All this Happen?

Abstract

By presenting brief sketches of a very few of the many cataclysmic changes that have occurred in this country in the last half century, I hope to provide here an idea of the range and power of the forces that have drastically redefined the relationship between grown children and their parents during the same period. This brief social history is not meant to be complete—everyone knows that change has been profound and that its rate is accelerating. The impact of these changes on parent-child relationships is not quite so evident, however, and the discussions that follow merely highlight a few of the shifts and give an idea of the wide range of effects they have exerted. For any example given here, the thoughtful reader will no doubt be able to supply a dozen more.

Times change; people change