White Mothers

As someone in a very secure, long-term interracial relationship, I am on a fast track to having and raising biracial children. I am not sure, because I'm not biracial, but I worry that my children will have to deal with race in ways that white children in white families and black children in black families don't have to. They may notice differences between the races earlier and will have to deal with prejudice from both sides of the fence. I will love them and support them to the best of my ability, but I think I need to admit that there are some issues that I won't be able to help them with. Two books that deal with this topic beautifully are

The Color of Water by James McBride and

Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama (the young man in the photo).

In both books, the authors are raised by single white mothers left dealing with parenthood and racial tensions. James McBride's mother takes a unique route and just denies that she is white, she's "just light skinned." Even though I think that's really funny, I hope that there is a way for interracial families to discuss race without anyone denying their racial background.

Single Mother

Images of Madonna and Child kept popping up when I searched for "family" in artstor. I thought that was funny.

This is a project that William Wegman did (the guy who photographs the dogs).  He overlapped photos of himself, his father, and his mother.  Most of his work doesn't deal with familial issues, but this set of photographs interested me in relation to my topic.  The merging of a couple and their child.  How united and similar the members of a family can be.  I know that if I did this with my two parents (My grandmother and mother), you wouldn't be able to tell the six frames apart.

  

Now I was reluctant to show Sally Mann photos because she's an easy artist to cite.  But these images bring up some interesting sides of her family.  

What are your expectations as a mother and your responsibility to your children?  

How can the perception of the same person in your family change based on the way you represent them? Whether it's in a photo or the specific stories you choose to tell about that person.  

How are you perceiving your family vs. how other people are perceiving your family?

Census Press Release

“Just over two-thirds (67 percent) of the nation’s 73.7 million children younger than 18 lived with two married parents in 2006.”

That means that 33% of our children live in a single-parent household.

The Jolie-Pitt family.  Just another shining 

example of a non-traditional family. 

Modern Family.

A show about families with a non-traditional setup.  It’s so interesting that this is the premise for the show.  I guess it’s always more interesting to watch a family that is slightly dysfunctional.  Or maybe one that you’d assume to be dysfunctional and then find out that it works.

Disney Movies and T.V. Shows with Non-traditional Families:

Snow White

Pinocchio (adoption by a single parent)

Dumbo

Bambi (absent father)

Cinderella (step mother)

101 Dalmations (adoption)

The Little Mermaid

Beauty and the Beast

Toy Story

Tarzan (adoption)

Hunchback of Notre Dame (adoption after murdering his mom)

Aladdin (orphan)

Hercules (adoption)

Parent Trap

The Jungle Book (adoption by wolves, maybe the winner)

Famous Jett Jackson (divorced parents)

Smart Guy

Life with Derek (two single parent families merge, a la Brady Bunch)

The Suite Life of Zach and Cody

Hannah Montana

Cory In The House

And almost every made for T.V. Disney movie…