This content was created by Kim Gaskill. This content was uploaded by Kim Gaskill. This is a YouTube video titled "097 June Cleaver" (part of the "Daily Spark" series), recorded March 29, 2019. It is a short monologue by Kim Gaskill in which she reflects on the 1950s TV mother June Cleaver, contrasts mid-20th century family roles with modern family dynamics and housing/technology trends, and invites viewers to discuss whether such a figure could “survive” in 2019.
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It's a new day. I'm Kim Gaskill and this is the Daily Spark. Okay, you want to know what sparked me today? June Cleaver. Do you know who that is? If you know who that is, then you probably grew up in the same period that I did watching Leave It to Beaver, My Three Sons, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres. Father Knows Best, all those great shows, most of them in black and white. But I'm thinking, if June Cleaver was dropped into a family unit today, would she survive, or would that family survive? It was a totally different society then, and how they raised their children, how they dealt with the family unit The roles that everybody played, the responsibilities that everybody had were so different than what we see today. I was talking earlier about the family unit and how a lot of the housing now is being built just for sharing expenses, for roommates, for multiple family members to live together longer. And so we each have our own space. They're building things with every bedroom has a bathroom so that you have your own space. And I think that's a— that is reflective of the society that we're in today. And I don't think that you could take and implant somebody from the '50s family unit and have them be successful today, even though you can have those values as the undertone of how you raise your children and how you structure your family. I don't know that it's feasible for you to actually live that way anymore because we've changed so drastically. And with technology, it's like everything moves so fast. Are we able to keep up both mentally and functionally within the family unit, or is it getting away from us? It's an interesting question to try and have a discussion on. So I challenge you today, have that discussion with somebody. Where do you think technology is going? How do you think that family values are changing? And could June Cleaver survive in 2019? Catch you again tomorrow for another Daily Spark.
