Advantages and Disadvantages of Family Types
Individual Family culture VS Traditional Family Culture.
Advantages Of The Nuclear Family
While discussing about the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear family, the first and foremost point pops up in the mind of a person is privacy of life.
Privacy: The couple can get their privacy in their own house in nuclear families whereas you cannot get your privacy in a joint family. People can live their own way and can do whatever they want to. There are no such boundaries set by the elders to follow.
Financial stability: When we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the nuclear family, then financial stability is one of the strongest points in the nuclear family. One can be financially strong because of limited expenses. There is less number of people in the nuclear family and hence less expenses. You cannot have a strong financial stability if you are the only person who is earning in a joint family.
Freedom: The elders restricts youngsters not to do certain tasks because they think this is not good for them. But today’s generation is very smart. They know what is good and bad for them and have enough analytical power so they don’t like to restrict themselves. Instead, they want their freedom so that they can do and achieve whatever they want in their life.
Ease in moving: When you have a nuclear family, you face fewer problems while shifting from a house. You can manage your things according to you without disturbing the lives of other people. This is one of the major advantages of the nuclear family.
Avoidance of stress and discomfort: Some people are emotional. They can’t tolerate any kind of fun that is on them and in the joint family, one need to have much high patience. But, nuclear families has the advantage that if you live in the company of those with whom you are very comfortable then there is no need to take any stress and your discomfort also get vanished in a moment.
Disadvantages Of The Nuclear Family
While thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of the nuclear family, a person should also think that it is not always good to live in a nuclear family. At certain points, you realize the value of joint family. Here are those points which will teach you the importance of joint family and disadvantages of nuclear families.
No care: If the parents are working and children suffered from any small or big disease, then one needs to deal with it alone as they don’t have elders and other family members to take care of. This is the major disadvantage of the nuclear family. One is alone and feels even sicker when he sees no one around.
Problems to children: If your child is small and needs special care, then at that point, you will definitely find the nuclear family not good enough. You will always think that if you were in a joint family then this condition would never arise as you have other family members who can take care of the child and in the mean time, you can do your work.
Security and safety: Security is one another disadvantage in the nuclear family. People feel insecure in the nuclear family. There are so many cases of robbery and murders and many of them are from nuclear family itself, as it is easier to grab someone who lives alone in a house or with less number of people.
No support: When we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear family, support is the thing one will always miss. If there is an argument between the couple then there is no one to support any one of them. They have to deal with their problem alone without any support. Sometimes due to open nature and ego, the fight results in divorce or separation because there was no one to make them understand the basics of a relationship.
Extra Expenses: When you live in a community or in a joint family, then you have the liability to keep other happy and familiar to you. In order to do this, you need to do some extra expenses. Suppose, you bring some gift for your child then it is also important to bring some gift for other children in the family.
TRADITION FAMILY CULTURE:- In an extended family, parents and their children’s families may often live under a single roof. This type of joint family often includes multiple generations in the family. From culture to culture, the variance of the term may have different meanings.
Advantages of Joint Families
Cradle of social virtues: Joint family is like a nursery to teach social virtues. It helps to develop social virtues like co-operation, sympathy, sacrifice, affection, spirit of selfless service, obedience and broadminded.
Insurance against olds: Joint Family Acts as insurance for the members of the family at the time of crisis. It provides social security to its members especially to the old, the infirm, the unemployed persons, the orphans, the widowed daughters and sisters as well as the physical and mentally handicapped among them. For all such persons the joint family acts as an insurance company.
Division of labour: In a joint family each member is given work according to his or her capacity. The men, women and children all have to work. For example, in a peasant joint family all the members work actively according to their ability. The old persons and children of the family watch the crops in the field. During the harvest season, the women in some families help in harvesting. This there is no need of procuring labour from outside the family.
Socialism in Wealth: According to Sir Henry Maine joint family is like a co-operative society with the father as the trustee. Every member in the joint family works conforming to the well established socialist formula; each works according to his or her ability and gets according to his or her needs.
Avoids fragmentation of land: Joint family avoids the evils or fragmentation of land by holding the property in common. Joint family is almost like a joint-stock company.
An agency of social control: Another advantage of joint family is that it acts as an agency of social control. In joint family there is a close supervision over the anti-social and unsocial activities of the young member.
Opportunity for leisure: Joint family affords ample leisure to its members. Both the male and female members divide the household works and finish it in a short time spending the rest of the day in leisure. They never feel over burdened.
Money saving device: Joint family is advantageous from the economic viewpoint. This system helps in securing economy in expenditure. Since things are consumed in a large quantity they can be obtained at cheap rate. A large family can be maintained within a small means if it lives jointly.
Disadvantages of Joint Family
Home for Idler: Joint family rests on collective responsibility. This sometimes accounts for laziness among some members. No doubt the active members do hard work. But when they get equal share in the food cooked at the common hearth, some members may become lazy and may not feel the necessity of doing any productive work. They spend their time in eating, sleeping and begetting children.
Hindrance in the development of personality: Joint family hinders the development of personality. Under the joint family system the head of the family or Karta is all in all. He is the sole authority to take any decision in family affairs. Other members, especially the juniors do not get a chance to think independently to take any independent decision. Thus development of personality is arrested.
Favours uncontrolled reproduction: Joint family is said to be associated with higher birth rate. Member does not feel the need of birth control because the children rest on the family as a whole.
Hot bed of quarrel: Joint family is the hotbed of quarrels and bickering. Quarrels are common among the female members of the family. Quarrels between the wives of brother, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is very common.
Source of litigation: Sometimes joint-family system encourages, litigation. At the time of the partition of movable or immovable property in the family dispute assumes serious proportion and most of the time these are not settled without the interference of the court of law.
Loss of privacy: Over crowdedness in joint family kills one’s privacy. The newly married man and his wife hardly get the time to meet and talk rarely in joint family.
Low position of women: Under the joint family system the woman is relegated to low status. Her condition in the family is worse. Particularly the condition of a daughter-in-law is very miserable. She is often ill-treated by her mother-in-law. Her life is no way better than that of a slave. In many cases, the ill treatment by the elderly women becomes so unbearable that they seek a permanent relief in committing suicide.
