Messages about families in US are pretty advanced for such a conservative country?

[Rohanda]

i-carly - no present parents, with no mention of a mum at all, dad is in a submarine. Friend 1.Freddy has no dad. friend 2. has no dad and a dysfunctional mum.
House of Anubis - a private school with no parent figures
Just Add Water - Aussie, yes but on nickelodeon - none of the 3 girls has a nuclear family set up.
Drake and Josh - a step-family.
Wizards of Waverly Place - they are a mix of wizards and non-wizards.
Spongebob - well, what can I say!
Two of a Kind - twins with only a father with them.

What are we to make of this? The drive to establish the need for a 2 plus 2 family structure is being utterly undermined by the the biggest proponent of 'family values' that feeds the capitalist system, i.e. the US.

But is all of this consistent with family values in old European fairy tales, about children making their own way?

or,,,AIBU to suggest it's all preset for a very flexible attitude to family structures in the future.

Yes, Jeremy Kyle, coverage of Royal Wedding, Royle Family and Downton Abbey.

There you have the UK psyche pretty much covered by all those programmes

tv programs, don't watch them can't comment, seems ott to worry though, where were the parents in "Greese" and similar? it did us no harm

The most shocking thing about US TV when I've been there is you get 1/2 of an all white show, followed by 1/2 hour of an all black one. It was a shock as the races are shown as mixing much more in the UK.

But OP as Phillip Pullman once said the first thing in children's literature is to get rid of the parents. My kids daily life would make the most boring TV!

yes, absence of parents seems to be a blue print - giving the children more freedoms and choices, eg Lord of the Flies?

Absent parents (dead, sick, in prison, overseas or just disengaged) are absolutely standard for all children's literature - from classic fairy tales to Harry Potter etc - and not surprisingly this has carried over into children's TV and films. If the parents were there and actively involved, children wouldn't be able to get into all the adventures etc you need to make the stories interesting. I don't think you can really use this as a basis for social commentary....