The Classification Of Families Sociology Essay
As Peter Ustinov says:” Parents are the bones on which children sharpen their teeth”; in other words, family as an invisible rope binds the family members together. Family is a group blood- related people living under one roof. That is a family including members as grandparents, parents and children. However, with the rapid development of society nowadays, the family structures are more and more becoming multiform and complicated than the past; however, the family structures as a whole still have four main types of families based on the family structure.
The first group consists of more than parents and children though extended by the addition of other relatives of the parents, for instance grandparents, uncles, aunts who are living in a house together; it called extended family. In the past, it can be seemed the most popular type of families, specially in the countryside where has spacious land. The advantage of being a member of a large family is that there are many members they help to train each other. The older ones, who have received some discipline and education, show the younger ones, by precept and example, how to behave, and so relieve the parents or grandparents of a lot of trouble. In addition, one advantage of being a member of extended family over the other families is that more hands make less work. In such a family, it is not uncommon for everyone to do his or her share of the work. It may simply be to wash the dishes, to sweep the floor, to care the younger ones or even to cook. These daily chores are actually useful for through them, they learn to be more independent and self-reliant. They gain confidence, too, knowing that there are many things that they can do. When their parents or grandparents are away, they will have to share the burden of keeping house in order to cook for themselves. In this way, they learn cooperate and to contribute them share of work. Through sharing they learn not to be selfish and not to think only of themselves. However, it also has the advantage that there is more quarrelling. A large family is not always a united family; and it may split up into factions. A quarrel between brothers is often worse than one between friends or acquaintances. Another signal disadvantage of a large family is that the facilities for self-improvement or for recreation may be less available for its members. There may be less privacy too, because rooms would have to be shared.
The second group includes nuclear family, which consists of parents and their child or children. They don’t want or have to live apart from the grandparents or the other relatives. This type of family can be arranged the best type in modern life. Life as a member of a nuclear family has its own advantages as well as disadvantages. The first point appears in the mind of a person is privacy of life. The parents can get their privacy in their own house in nuclear families whereas they cannot get their privacy in extended family. People can live their own way and can do whatever they want in their life without the elders restrict. The other and the strongest points in the nuclear family is financial stability. There is the less number of people in the family so the expenses will also less. People cannot have a strong financial stability if they are the only person who is earning in extended family. On the other hand, there are certain disadvantages. The parents cannot give so much individual attention to their child or children if they are working and the child or children get any small or big disease, so one has to deal with it alone because they lack of elders and other family members to take care of. They tend to feel lonely or even sicker when they see no one around. Moreover, if the child is small and need a special care, it will be become a big trouble as they have no other family members who can take care of the child while they have to do their work. The security and safety is one another in the nuclear family. There are so many cases of robbery and murders; many of them are from the nuclear family. It is dangerous for those who lives alone in house or with less number of people
The single-parent family belongs to the next group, which refers to only one parent in the house raising the child or children. The number of single-parent families have become more common in recent years. It can be a result of separation, divorce or death of the parent. Being a child or children in single-parent family, they nearly lack of a quality proceeding from feelings of father’s love or mother’s love. Children were taken by single mom or single dad will easy to suffer from psychological and behavioral problem. They tend to easy way to get anger, noncompliance, rule violations. School achievement also can suffer. For example: they can be sneered by their friends because they don’t have mother or father or they can feel lonely when the other friends have parents. Besides, a single parent have to work harder to earn money and they have to be both mother and father to give more care, attention to their child or children at the same time. Nevertheless, there are also advantages that the children will enjoy full love from their parent. The child can be provided with better nutritious and well-balanced food or they can have better clothing of good materials and new fashions. Additionally, they will have more opportunities to develop responsibility. They have to face with all problems in life when their parent is away.
Single member accounts for the last category and usually don’t have family or tend to live without family. They are usually students or workers who live far away from home to have more and better job opportunities or higher educational opportunities. The first, and also a very common, that they have to face is that once they start a life away from home, they always get homesick. They usually miss the moments that they share with their family, such as sitting together in a couch watching TV shows, or having a dinner together and telling about their day during family meals. The other is once they live far away from home, they have to learn how to do things by themselves. They have to get used to a life full of duties. Now they have to worry about every aspects of their life, from bigger such as manage their budget to smaller tasks like cleaning rooms, cooking their meals, doing their washing up, etc. The best thing about living away from home is that people have more freedom. They can set their rules, stay up late, or do anything they want without being afraid of disturbing any family members. The other advantage that they will have more opportunities to experience life by themselves and explore other’s cultures
In short, each person can choose for theme one of in four kinds of these types: extended family, nuclear family, single-parent family and singe member. Whatever your particular family structures, it will have tremendous influence upon your happiness, development and future; therefore, people need to decide what is the best one for theme in the future to build and make a happy family.
