The document discusses the concept of a family life cycle, where individuals experience different types of family and household situations over their lifetime based on factors like relationships, having children, aging parents. It provides an example of one woman's life cycle, starting as part of a nuclear family as a child, then living in single-parent, communal, single, cohabiting, nuclear (with own children), and single households at different points from age 0 to 100. Finally, it outlines a theorist's perspective that the nuclear family remains the most typical structure, though individuals pass through other situations like single-parenthood along the way.

1. The Family Life Cycle

2. What do we mean by ‘life cycle’?
• On a personal level, you will probably live
in a variety of family and household
situations during your life.
• How you have lived as a child will be very
different to how you live as a student, a
single person, an employee, a married
person.
• Each of us will have a different life cycle
linked to where we are born, our class,
gender, ethnicity and the choices we make
throughout our lives.

4. An example
• Nikki born into a nuclear family (aged 0-
13)
• Her parents divorce and she experiences
life with her mother as a single parent
family (aged 13-18)
• She goes to university and shares a flat in
a communal household (aged 18-21)
• Nikki lives alone as a singleton (aged 21-
25)

5. • Nikki falls in love with Pete and they live
as a cohabiting couple (aged 25-28)
• They marry and have 2 children. Nikki is a
nuclear family again (aged 28-48)
• The children leave home and Pete and
Nikki are an ‘empty nest’ family (aged 48-
78)
• Pete dies and Nikki lives alone again as a
singleton (aged 78-100)

6. Now write up an example yourself
• Think of someone you know
• It could be someone in your family – an
older member would be best to show the
possible range of family/household
situations

7. What do the theorists say?
Robert Chester (1985)
Argues that for most people the nuclear
family is still the most typical family.
He argues that single parent families
normally come from nuclear families and
many single parents will remarry and
become nuclear families again.
Even though many couple cohabit, he
argues most will eventually go on to marry