I think that Billie Letts chose to write this book from a nontraditional family standpoint because it would help people "cope- with the fact that a growing number of people come from nontraditional families. Many kids these days come from broken homes. This book shows that despite the fact that homes aren't nontraditional, love is still within them.
I think that the traditional family is still frequently portrayed as mother/father/children because people are afraid to accept the reality of how common other families are. Despite the fact that people embrace different forms of family life, most cannot get past the traditional image. Perhaps it's because that's the image they've grown up with. After all, there have been traditional families in movies and on television shows for awhile. Although slightly less traditional, even the Brady Bunch ended up with a mother, father, and kids. .
I think the mother, father, and children family remains the "ideal-. Maybe it always will be the "ideal-. That doesn't change the fact that the nontraditional families are on the rise. Around 40% of kids these days have divorced parents. Television today often depicts a variety of different nontraditional families. .
For example, Joey on Dawson's Creek has her sister and no parents. Seventh Heaven portrays a family of seven kids, plus one ex-boyfriend, as well as someone's fiancée in the garage apartment. Perhaps as television infiltrates more nontraditional families, the world will come to grips with the fact that they exist and are more common than people think. Maybe the next generation will not be surprised when the "nontraditional- families, like those of Where the Heart Is, become "traditional-.
Although these families are often very loving, and much like the "traditional- families, it is still sad to see what is happening to our world. It seems as though marriage and divorce are taken so lightly, that no one really thinks twice about a marriage ending in divorce.