Article: The Australian, September 29th, 2008
William McInnes on Families
In the late '80s I had a job stacking plastic chairs at a Family Fun Day. What the Family Fun Day was in aid of I am not quite sure, but I have a feeling it was something to do with the Bicentennial.
There was a lot of talk about good Aussie tucker, which basically meant some guy in a big hat with a beard was cooking sausages and onions on a barbecue. Yes, it must have been the Bicentennial. It was very hot and there were lots of plastic chairs to stack and lots of families.
It seemed, though, that there was not that much fun. Children screamed, parents yelled, faces were painted, politicians spoke, someone who had the biggest, blondest perm and wore the brightest Lycra sang her new single. And the speakers didn’t work properly. It didn’t really matter. It wasn’t much of a song. It mattered even less when another man with a beard started talking into a microphone and sounded like some alien from Dr Who.
Meanwhile, a litany of names of lost children were called out in a drone by a woman with a loudhailer. A friend who was also stacking plastic chairs looked across to me as a nearby father stood simmering while a mother shouted at him: “She didn’t want to be a tiger, she wanted to be a zebra!” A little girl cried tears down the remnants of her tiger face, newly minted from the chaotic and understaffed face-painting stall. “They were out of zebra paint,” sulked the father. A little boy holding his father’s hand smiled in his zebra stripes. The mother said something but we didn’t hear it.
The speakers suddenly worked and out across the day boomed the cry of the bearded man: “Families are what makes our country. They are a cornerstone of our society.” My friend looked to me and said: “Willy, we’re in trouble.” We laughed quite a bit, as I remember.
Well, that was when we were younger. Both of us, I suppose, had a fairly limited understanding of what a family was. I suppose there are those in marketing who can plot the makeup of each succeeding idea of what a family is. They seek to create that most mythical of all concepts – the average, everyday family. I can’t remember what that day’s average family was like.
To be honest, my friend and I were well into the process of leaving our parents behind and striking out on our own. For life is about change, and indeed life can deal out many different hands to different people. And although it can be seen as a game of chance, there are a few immutable truths about the whole thing. One is that our time is finite. The other is that what the bearded speaker said was true. Family is a cornerstone of our society.
The family unit is where we learn about life. It’s the launching pad from which we make our way through life. It’s where our characters are formed and our values are born. It’s where we find what we want to rebel against or stand up for. And even though life is full of a fondness for change, the importance of the family is still paramount.
But although the family’s role may be the same, its makeup and recipe can change. That’s where the market researchers come into play. Since that day stacking plastic chairs there have been countless more Family Fun Days held around this country, and more tears over face-painting and fractious parents and lost children announcements, though thankfully not as many giant, permed, Lycra-clad warblers.
Kids are now staying in their family home long after my generation deemed it time to fly the coop. Eighteen to 20 years seemed to be the general departure age for me and my cohorts, but now it seems as if a midlife crisis is shared over a cup of tea around the breakfast table with mum and dad.
Economics can be one factor of how the family structure may differ, for economics is a social system based around people, not just a set of figures as some commentators may have us believe. Job opportunity and the cost of living may determine how long offspring stay in the family nest. The level of debt a family unit carries might determine how much a family can engage in its society. This is where public and government assistance to maintain a general level of family engagement should be encouraged. Not to pass on laws of dos and don’ts, or to pry into how a family lives its life, but to ensure that opportunity is open to all.
You only have to look at how childcare has become a major concern for many families. The collective gasp was audible when the profit-driven ABC Learning Centres lurched precariously during the latest saga in the global credit squeeze.
Australia has also become a more diverse country. There are more single-parent and mixed-parent families and indeed more same-gender parental families. Both parents may work. As a society broadens the idea of itself these changes are bound to occur, and as long as the diversity of the society’s institutions is maintained, then, really, Family Fun Days can only become even more exciting. For the bearded speaker was right, and even though on that day in the late ’80s I could never have imagined myself ever doing anything else at a Family Fun Day other than stacking chairs, both my friend and I ended up starting our own families.
Not long ago we wandered around a packed event on the banks of the Yarra River. It was teeming with people, all odd shapes, sizes and colours, but really it seemed it was teeming with families. Both our youngest children stopped by a tent that had a line stretching back through the crowds and, funnily enough, back through the years. It was the face-painting tent. Our girls looked up at us. “I hope they haven’t run out of zebra paint,” I said. “Oh Willy, we’re in trouble,” said my friend. Surrounded by families, both our own and countless others, we laughed quite a bit.
William McInnes is an actor and author. His latest book, That’d Be Right (Hachette Australia), was published in August.
In the late '80s I had a job stacking plastic chairs at a Family Fun Day. What the Family Fun Day was in aid of I am not quite sure, but I have a feeling it was something to do with the Bicentennial.
There was a lot of talk about good Aussie tucker, which basically meant some guy in a big hat with a beard was cooking sausages and onions on a barbecue. Yes, it must have been the Bicentennial. It was very hot and there were lots of plastic chairs to stack and lots of families.
It seemed, though, that there was not that much fun. Children screamed, parents yelled, faces were painted, politicians spoke, someone who had the biggest, blondest perm and wore the brightest Lycra sang her new single. And the speakers didn’t work properly. It didn’t really matter. It wasn’t much of a song. It mattered even less when another man with a beard started talking into a microphone and sounded like some alien from Dr Who.
Meanwhile, a litany of names of lost children were called out in a drone by a woman with a loudhailer. A friend who was also stacking plastic chairs looked across to me as a nearby father stood simmering while a mother shouted at him: “She didn’t want to be a tiger, she wanted to be a zebra!” A little girl cried tears down the remnants of her tiger face, newly minted from the chaotic and understaffed face-painting stall. “They were out of zebra paint,” sulked the father. A little boy holding his father’s hand smiled in his zebra stripes. The mother said something but we didn’t hear it.
The speakers suddenly worked and out across the day boomed the cry of the bearded man: “Families are what makes our country. They are a cornerstone of our society.” My friend looked to me and said: “Willy, we’re in trouble.” We laughed quite a bit, as I remember.
Well, that was when we were younger. Both of us, I suppose, had a fairly limited understanding of what a family was. I suppose there are those in marketing who can plot the makeup of each succeeding idea of what a family is. They seek to create that most mythical of all concepts – the average, everyday family. I can’t remember what that day’s average family was like.
To be honest, my friend and I were well into the process of leaving our parents behind and striking out on our own. For life is about change, and indeed life can deal out many different hands to different people. And although it can be seen as a game of chance, there are a few immutable truths about the whole thing. One is that our time is finite. The other is that what the bearded speaker said was true. Family is a cornerstone of our society.
The family unit is where we learn about life. It’s the launching pad from which we make our way through life. It’s where our characters are formed and our values are born. It’s where we find what we want to rebel against or stand up for. And even though life is full of a fondness for change, the importance of the family is still paramount.
But although the family’s role may be the same, its makeup and recipe can change. That’s where the market researchers come into play. Since that day stacking plastic chairs there have been countless more Family Fun Days held around this country, and more tears over face-painting and fractious parents and lost children announcements, though thankfully not as many giant, permed, Lycra-clad warblers.
Kids are now staying in their family home long after my generation deemed it time to fly the coop. Eighteen to 20 years seemed to be the general departure age for me and my cohorts, but now it seems as if a midlife crisis is shared over a cup of tea around the breakfast table with mum and dad.
Economics can be one factor of how the family structure may differ, for economics is a social system based around people, not just a set of figures as some commentators may have us believe. Job opportunity and the cost of living may determine how long offspring stay in the family nest. The level of debt a family unit carries might determine how much a family can engage in its society. This is where public and government assistance to maintain a general level of family engagement should be encouraged. Not to pass on laws of dos and don’ts, or to pry into how a family lives its life, but to ensure that opportunity is open to all.
You only have to look at how childcare has become a major concern for many families. The collective gasp was audible when the profit-driven ABC Learning Centres lurched precariously during the latest saga in the global credit squeeze.
Australia has also become a more diverse country. There are more single-parent and mixed-parent families and indeed more same-gender parental families. Both parents may work. As a society broadens the idea of itself these changes are bound to occur, and as long as the diversity of the society’s institutions is maintained, then, really, Family Fun Days can only become even more exciting. For the bearded speaker was right, and even though on that day in the late ’80s I could never have imagined myself ever doing anything else at a Family Fun Day other than stacking chairs, both my friend and I ended up starting our own families.
Not long ago we wandered around a packed event on the banks of the Yarra River. It was teeming with people, all odd shapes, sizes and colours, but really it seemed it was teeming with families. Both our youngest children stopped by a tent that had a line stretching back through the crowds and, funnily enough, back through the years. It was the face-painting tent. Our girls looked up at us. “I hope they haven’t run out of zebra paint,” I said. “Oh Willy, we’re in trouble,” said my friend. Surrounded by families, both our own and countless others, we laughed quite a bit.
William McInnes is an actor and author. His latest book, That’d Be Right (Hachette Australia), was published in August.
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