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Does putting your smartphone on a restaurant table during a date impact your relationship? How does where you place your TV in your home impact your family? The Stuff of Family Life takes readers inside the changing world of families through a unique examination of their stuff. From online valentines to the growing popularity of "man caves," author Michelle Janning looks not only at what large demographic studies say about family dynamics but also what our lives - and the stuff in them - say about how we relate to each other. The book takes readers through various phases of family life, including dating, marriage, parenting, divorce, and aging, paying attention to how our choices about our spaces and objects impact our lives.Janning has joked, "I am not a social scientist who uses large national datasets to illustrate family life; I'm the social scientist who asks people to examine what's in their underwear drawers to tell stories about their family life.