What we are going to learn
The main theme of this presentation is Family. What we are going to discuss in this session is the importance of family in the development of an individual. Apart from that the different types of families that prevail in our society and different family system across continents. Why we are focusing on this topic is to realize and recognize the role that our family has played in making us what we are today.
After studying this chapter you would be able to:
- Develop a better understanding of families and their influence on your life
- Importance of communication inside your home
- What impact a family has on the society
Outline for presentation:
- What is a family
- Types of families
- Nuclear family
- Extended family
- Reconstituted family
- Single parent family
- Cereal packet family
- General perspective about a family
- Contribution of families in developing a society
- Affinity relationships
Group activity
- Identify which family type you belong
- How your family does prepare you before you enter into your practical life
Further reading
For additional reading and to get more practical know-how about the significance of family in one’s life students are advised to read the following article. The link of the article is given below:
What is a family?
It is a collective body of persons who live under one roof, under one head often known as the head of the family. A family consists of a husband-wife living together with their children. In other cases, there might be some other persons who would also be living with the family-like grandparents’ uncles and aunts, etc.
In other words, we can say it is a unit of people that are connected by natural genealogical links, most likely consisting of a father and mother and their children, or in some cases, some replicated genealogical links, such as adoption (Corbett).
It is not necessary that the family would only consist of a husband-wife and their children; there might be a wider group of people beyond a nuclear family with whom there is a genealogical link.
Types of families
Globally the shape of this social unit is changing. There are different types of families that could be found out nowadays. Some of them are described below:
- Nuclear family
- Extended family
- Reconstituted family
- Single parent family
- Cereal packet family
Nuclear family: This is a typical kind of a family which consists of parents that is husband-wife and their children.
Extended family: As written before this is the family in which apart from the nuclear family there are other members that live with them most probably the grandparents.
Reconstituted family: This is a family which is more commonly known as the stepfamily.
Single parent family: As the name suggests this family consist of one parent usually females.
Cereal packet family: Many sociologists relate the cereal packet family as an extended form of the nuclear family. In this family setup, there are parents and children, the woman is a housewife and a full-time mother while the man is the breadwinner i.e. he is the one who has to go out and work to feed his family. The cereal packet family is an ideal situation and this is the kind of image that most people have in their mind about a family. We can also see the glimpse of the cereal packet family in most of the advertisements.
General perspective
In general what one understands from the term, family is that it is group of people living together consisting of husband wife and their children. The father is the head of the house and his primary responsibility is to earn money to feed his family. On the other hand mothers are seen as a facilitator, who supports her husband, look after the home issues and the most important role is the development and nurturing of her children (Lerner).
All in all both the parents have an overriding responsibility of the children’s education, discipline, making them a respectable citizen and a good human being, as they are the primary guardian of the children.
Families across continents
There is a great diversity in the family systems in different continents. For example the south Asian families have a tendency of having vertically extended families; this means that the family has three different age generations living together e.g. grandparents, parents and children (Sixth Sense).
Society in itself
Nations are build up by families, and families are build by people living together. It’s a replica of a mini state, where the father is the head of the house, the mother is often handling the internal house affairs and mean time helping the father.
Family is the first place of learning and getting an understanding about the outside world.
Apart from that the family plays an important role in the development of an individual from an ignorant infant into a well reputed responsible citizen. It is also essential that the parents should ingrain the importance of family into your children. They should need to know that they would come across friends, but family is one thing that they will have in life throughout (Professors House).
The family also helps the children in developing responsibility and identifying their role in the family how they can contribute in the daily lives. A good way to have a conversation with your family is at the meal together. Here parents can ask their children different questions about their studies, any problems that they are facing etc; the atmosphere that time should be conducive for communication so that the children should not be hesitant. Another good way of enhancing the bond between the families is to go on short trip vacations. This is a great way of taking a break from the normal routine hectic life and spending some time with your family. This would bolster children’s self confidence and give them a good feeling about the family bonding.
Kinship relationship
This phenomenon lies in the extended family largely. It includes lineal relationship which refers to grandparents and grandchildren. Collateral relationship refers to the uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces. Affinal refers to parents in law, children in law and sibling in law (Georgas).
Determinants of Family Types
Family type determinants vary from culture to culture means that the same family system is not for everyone. In the Asian block of there is a high trend of extended families living together where up to three generations live together. This gives the children an extra bit of attention from the elders that are present in the house at the disposal of the children. Comparatively in the Western society the nuclear family system is followed largely.
Conclusion
There is a famous saying that says that you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family. The family provides both a sense of protection and pride for an individual and without a doubt it is the single most important factor that transforms an infant into a well recognized individual. Family has an everlasting impact on an individual’s life. The family system should be like this that is should promote communication between the family members and foster a healthy relationship between the siblings and other members of the family. It should be seen as an institution where everyone learns from each other’s experiences that is why there is so much emphasis on family communications.
Apart from that family also plays an decisive role in making a good society reason being societies are made up of families, so a good family can give good individuals to the society. It develops the social responsibility in an individual about how to lead his life in a way that would serve in the betterment of that individual and the society as well.
Questions for discussion
- What is the role of a family in the development of a responsible citizen?
- Sociologist believes that increased divorced rate has a breakdown in the families’ institution, discuss?
- How differences in culture effect family system?
- What do we learn from other societies about family structure?
Work cited
Corbett, A. What is a family? why it matters. Tasmania: Tasmania Family Institute, 2004.
Georgas, J. Family: Variations and Changes Across Cultures. 2003. Web.
Lerner, R. Family diversity and family policy. Massachusetts: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999.
Professors House. The Importance Of Family. 2007. Web.
Sixth Sense. Sociology. 2005. Web.