There is no such thing. The days of two-parent households and one-income families are over. It is no longer assumed that every child sitting at his desk has a mom and a dad waiting at home for them at the end of the day. Divorce, adoption, death, re-marriage, and same-sex relationships, and non-married relationships have taken over the traditional family model. When so many people are looking for the married couple with 2.5 kids and a dog, they should be looking for happy, confident children. Because it is not what the family is comprised of that makes it successful, it is how the family works together. And a family with two moms, or only one dad, can be just as successful (if not more successful) than the Leave It to Beaver model.
written on August 21, 2002; modified on August 21, 2002.