Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

The typical final stage in the family life cycle is when one partner passes away, leaving the other partner
on her/his/their own. In essence, an individual suddenly finds her/him/themself older, and yet again,
single.
Probably the most apparent problem with the traditional approach to the family life cycle is that it does
not take into account a wide range of differing family possibilities. For example, Elisa Backer noted
several other options that could exist outside of the traditional family cycle:
• Young singles (less than 35 years old)
• Young couples (no children) (female less than 35 years old)
• Gay couple (no children)
• Gay couple (with children)
• Older couple (no children) (female 35+ years of age)
• Older retired couple (no children from current marriage)
• Age-gap couple (children from current relationship; with or without
children from previous relationship)
• Age-gap couple (no children from current relationship; with or
without children from previous relationship)
• Older divorced single (no children)
• Single parent (children still at home)
• Older single (never been married, no children) (35+ years old)
• Couple with pre-school children (youngest child not at school)
• Couple with school-aged children (youngest child at school)
• Couple with older children (all children finished school)
• Empty Nest I (still working, children left home)
• Empty Nest II (retired, children left home)
• Widower (widower who is not working and partner is deceased)
• Widower (still working) 43
Another commonly discussed problem with this approach to understanding the family life cycle is that
many individuals do not walk through the family life cycle in an exact sequence. For example, someone
could be single, get married, get divorced, get married again, have a child, lose a partner, get remarried,
have another child (one child is pre-school age one is recently launched), etc. Suddenly, we’ve gone from
a path that seems highly “normalized” and straightforward to one that contains a lot more uncertainty and
diversions from the typical path of “family.”
As a whole, family life cycles are an excellent tool for having a general understanding of how many
families function within society, but many families do not experience the life cycle as a linear process
from singlehood to death.
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Interpersonal Communication