THE CHANGING AMERICAN FAMILY
by Alvin and Heidi Toffler

In America the family structure is changing and diversifying. They are trying to restore the integrity of the family but according to Toffler, in order to restore the structure, one would have to understand it. Understanding the reason is something they made clear that they do not get. This problem exceeds across Canada, Britain, France, Sweden and many other countries. There is some wrong generally, this is not a one country problem. Toffler claims that the diversification of families come from revolutionary changes in technology, work, energy, communication and lastly, economics. 

A Toffler and H. Toffler describes three family waves or popular types. The first wave is the extended family. These family types consisted of large amounts of family members living in one house and working together on farms etc.  The extended family is still popular but more so cultural or in impoverish societies. The second wave is the nuclear family. This consist of the mother, father and children. The nuclear family become popular after the introduction of the industrial revolution. The fathers were working in factories and the family would have to move a lot. This is not something that is feasible for a large family. The third wave is the single household and the single parent household. Not all families have children hence the single household. Furthermore the divorce rates are increasing leaving women to raise their children in a single parent household. The single parent is becoming the dominant household as every year their is an increase in divorce causing the related increase in one parent households.

To help the families who now assume this single parent structure there should be better divisions between work life and home life. Parents should spend time with their children as much as they can. Toffler even advises in work "flex-time", working part time and even job sharing. Spending more time with your child or children helps them to have a better development. Instead of trying to return back to the old systems or the old ways of living, Toffler says that we should adjust to the new norm and try and make it a more decent workable system.