The traditional notion that the man practices a profession and the woman stays at home is no longer a social ideal, the hope for a long life of conjugal bliss has vanished like a soap bubble, and the Confucian principle that the old be cared for by their children is now seen by most families as a burden too onerous to bear.
當「男有分、女有歸」不再是大同理想，「百年好合」已成泡影，「老有所終、幼有所養」的重擔更已是多數家庭不可承受之重時，家庭的變化不但難以扭轉，甚至難以預料。