The Second Family
How Adolescent Power is Challenging the American Family
by Ron Taffel with Melinda Blau This book is intended for parents and people who work with teens and preteens. What Taffel calls the second family is the network of friends that many teens and preteens today have. The beginning of the book, which is a description of what Taffel thinks the world of kids looks like today, is original, mostly accurate, and interesting. However, it is obvious throughout the book that the teens Taffel describes are not really the average teenagers, although he thinks that they are. Taffel describes exclusively those teens whose parents are middle and upper class. Kids whose exposure to media is limited, or who have not had a consistant peer group also do not fit into Taffel's picture.
The Second Family says that kids today are influenced more by the media and by their peers than they are by their families. It claims that kids today act out mostly to increase their own comfort and not to rebel against parents. The accusation is made that parents do not spend enough time with their kids and that they should spend more time with their kids, doing what their kids like to do, without leaving their role as authority figures.
The second half of the book is a guide to parents on how to deal with their kids, and is not more than common sense. As a teenager who does not have a "second family" or a network of friends and who shares the values of earlier generations, I think that Taffel is ignoring a large number of kids who do not fit his view, but that his theories can be applied to some teenagers.
Happy reading.
