32920122200905 孙策
Single Parent Family In Film \"About a Boy\"
In this semester ,I had watched a lots of movie but in my opinion \"About a boy\" is the best movie. \"About a Boy\" is a 2002 British comedy-drama film co-written by Peter Hedges and directed by brothers Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz. It is an adaptation of the 1998 novel of the same name by Nick Hornby. \"About a boy\" is the growth story of a boy and a man. This movie depicts several single mother and their children just like the actress call Fiona and her son called Marcus.
A single parent is a parent, not living with a spouse or partner, who has most of the day-to-day responsibilities in raising the child or children. A single parent is usually considered the primary caregiver of children. But normally, single parent family is not happy at all, most of the time they lead a terrible life.
In this film, we can see that Marcus leads a trouble life mostly because of his single mom Fiona who is a seriously depressed hippie-chick. And in school he is labeled “weird” by his schoolmates and constantly bullied by them. Marcus' mother Fiona is not good at cooking, she is negative, has suicidal tendency and also has violent temper. Her life is not happy . She divorce husband when she was young . She often cry for no reasons . She tried to commit suicide but failed . Her son was worried about her and her son tried to make her happy in every possible ways but she didn’t know that . Her son even arrange a date for her and Will just want to change her life but it was failed . Also, in this movie we can also see that, after known Will, Marcus comes to feel close to Will and accept him as the father figure whom he can confide in . We can see that Marcus really want to have a real family and a good father. Because he is from a single family he never had a real family.
Nowadays children are more likely to reside in a single parent family for reasons other than the death of a parent. The increase in the number of single parent families occurs mainly because of people's increasing acceptance of pluralism in family life. It is easy for incompatible couples to resort to divorce. Fewer people get married and more choose cohabitation. Consequently, more children are born outside marriage. All these changes seem to be a product of increasing social tolerance and less rigid sex morals. With little consideration for children's sentiments, some parents never hesitate to turn over a new marriage leaf. According to the statistics, in China more than one tenth of children are being raised in single parent families, this number in the UK is 28%, while in the USA, 28% of children under 15 live with single parents. 90% of single parent families are headed by females. The increase in single parent families is a serious problem in our society. It is one of the most striking changes in family structure over the past several decades. The children in single parent families needs our cares just like Marcus.
For the children and their single parent, there are many bad effects. In single parent families, single parent have to pay all the household expenses alone. So this usually put more pressure on single parent. Single parent families are at a higher risk of poverty than couple families, and on average single mothers have poorer health
than couple mothers. Besides, children in single family are forced to be mature in early age and have more pressure than other children. They are very likely to share more household responsibilities, including looking after themselves. The most important thing is that single parenting is strongly associated with an increased risk of a number of negative social, behavioral and emotional outcomes for children. They often have a terrible life, they have higher rates of antisocial behavior, aggression, anxiety, and school problems than children in two parent families. For example, survey showed that over half of china’s juvenile delinquents are from single parent families. Luckily, in this film, the boy Marcus doesn't have this behavior. But it doesn't means that he didn't needs people's help.
After watching this film, I think we should try our best to weaken the negative effects of single parent families. I think single parents should provide structure for their children with regular meals, chores, school work, entertainment and bed-time. Routines help children to feel more secure and less anxious. It is also important that single mothers and fathers not rely on their children to fill adult roles. Communication, understanding, and cooperation are encouraged. Regular, positive family meetings are a great way to support such things. Single parenting is challenging but with some effort it can definitely work. Just like Will, he tried hard to help the boy, Marcus, to build up his self-confidence in every possible ways. Finally Marcus changed , he became much more confident and never feel alone . Every child in single parent family needs people' care.
From the film \"About a Boy\I saw many several single mother and their children just like the actress call Fiona and her son called Marcus. The increase in single parent families is a serious problem in our society. In my opinion I think we should try our best to help the children in single parent families, to help them to weaken the negative effects of single parent families and live a happy life.