Advantages and Disadvantages of Family

Introduction

Socially an individual, whether a male or female, is considered a single entity that belongs to a group of people (male and female) known as parents who give birth and raise them in a house. When these individual stays together in a house and have a relationship makes a family. A family is a group of people who have blood relations, are married, and live together after adoption under one roof.

Family is considered as the smallest and most basic unit of society. It is the primary social group that shares social and economic responsibilities. Family gives a social environment to the child born and brought up there that is responsible for developing its attitude (where two parents raise their child).

"Family can be stated as the legalization of the sexual relationship between a male or female in the name of marriage in which both fulfil their responsibilities and play their roles efficiently. The couple is responsible for taking family to next generation by giving birth to a child and brought it up."

"A family is defined when people stays together under one roof due to blood relation or adopted and share food, income, love, care, affection, responsibilities, etc."

There are different criteria on which families are distinguished, i.e., the type of family is based on various stages of human life.

Family can be structured like this, as shown in the image:

As shown above, these types of families

a) Families based on birth

• Family of orientation (family where an individual takes birth or a family by birth)
• Family of procreation (after marriage, when an individual steps into a family, it can be male or female)

b) Families based on marriage

• Monogamous (a family having a husband, a wife, and their children)
• Polygynous (a husband having more than one wife, their children born after their mating or can be adopted by them)
• Polyandrous ( a wife having more than one husband and their children, taken birth or adopted by them)

c) Family-based on residence

• Matrilocal (a couple staying in the wife's house)
• Patrilocal (couple stay's at the husband's house)
• Changing (a couple stays at a place for a short period, whether it's the wife's house, the husband's house, or another place. Change the place frequently)

d) Family-based on the nature of the relation

• Conjugal (a family consisting of adults and their dependent children. It is placed on the marital relationship or long-term sexual relation between spouses, living together as partners but not married)
• Consanguine ( family members living together connected with a blood relation having parents and siblings)

e) Family-based on ancestry or descent

• Matrilineal (family or ancestry is traced through the mother's side)
• Patrilineal (family or ancestry is traced through the father's side)

f) Family-based on authority

• Matriarchal (the matriarchal system exists in matriarchal societies where the woman is the head of the family, and the husband resides in the wife's house. Children took birth and were brought up in the mother's house, and succession of the property occurs through the female line, meaning only daughters inherit the property. This kind of family is limited in number all over the world and can be found in the parts of Ceylon, India and Africa, and Latin America.
• Patriarchal ( it is common all around the world where the father is the head of the family and continues its legacy, owner of ancestor property, and children take birth and are brought up in the father's house)

g) Family-based on size or structure

• Nuclear (In today's world, it is the most common type of family found everywhere, having two generations, i.e., mother, father, and their kids (natural or adopted))
• Joint (generally three or four generations living under one roof, or two or three nuclear families share the same kitchen and economic expenses. A group of people cook together, eat together, stay together and hold the property in common. This includes great-grandparents, grandparents & their two or three children married and having their kids that follow the rituals together at the same place and are connected by all means)
• Extended (when an individual treats someone as a family member, it can be long-distance relative, friends, known one, etc. it is an individual choice to make an extended family)

Characteristics of a Family

Here are some of the characteristics of family as follows:

• Family connects with various emotions like love, sharing, caring, recognition, etc., that make it a fundamental unit of human society.
• A family formation starts with a permanent relationship between two people called marriage, where a sexual relationship is formed to reproduce.
• Universally family is considered as a social unit because it performs different functions indispensable for society and individuals.
• Several people connected with some relations live together in a family, such as a mother, father, and unmarried children. Relations are based on biological conditions. That's why the size of the family is limited.
• A family member shares a single habit of living in one place.
• Family is formed as economic provisions where every member performs a specific duty that include earning income, preparing food, full fill the need of family.
• Family members try to fulfill each other necessities to survive.
• The family follows a nomenclature system where family members share the same surname depending on culture and traditions. Mostly paternal surnames are passed, but in some cultures, matriarchal surname names are passed down.
• Every family has one person, known as the head of the family, who makes rules and takes major decisions in everyone's life.
• A family is a functional group in which association can be temporary and transitional, but everyone survives together, holding and serving mutual responsibilities.
• Society or social culture is the combination of families living in one place.

Functions of family

• Family is responsible for reproduction, regulated and controlled in a family.
• Family helps perpetuate the human race and the propagation of the human species.
• The family defines the identity of an individual.
• An agent of socialization in which family members teach a child all basic rules and norms of social life.
• Family is a great source of emotional, psychological, affection, love, and economic strength for all the family members.
• Family is the primary school of every individual from where they start educating themselves and learn about social culture, customs, religion, traditions, etc.
• Family is the safest place that safeguards every individual.

Family plays a vital role and affects each area, decision, and aspect of your life. Everyone has a different definition of the family because it means something different to everyone. It's true that socially we are acknowledged by family, directly or indirectly we depend on the family in many criteria. On this basis, the family has various advantages and disadvantages. Let's learn some of them:

Advantages of family

a) Perform various functions

The culture of the family started before humans came into existence. The animals reproduce by mating and reproducing a new generation. Animals do have a family like humans. Every family plays their role by performing these functions:

• Reproduction and sexual relation
• Care & protection of children
• Economic provision
• Affection
• Socialization of children

b) Gives love and support

Everyone needs love in life, and family is the only one who gives you unconditional love despite all your positives and negatives. No one support you as your family can as they brought you up, give you their name, fame, wealth, etc., and fully support you in finding your own identity. Family provides a framework for future relationships that help you form secure attachments. Family is the greatest source of love, care, support, encouragement, security, and many more. Children in a joint family get more love and affection than other families.

c) Financial and economic support

Family provides economic security by fulfilling the family's financial needs, including the health and well-being of children and their parents in the long and short term. Family having good financial condition provide all the luxuries to their child, including the best education, food, and clothing, fulfilling their desires. All parents give their everything to support their children even beyond their limits.

d) Provide security and protection from outsiders

Family act as a protection wall for every individual, especially joint families, and has proved to be an excellent resource for care where members feel safe and secure (protected from verbal, emotional, physical, or sexual abuse). On a priority base, family ensures you protect at each level. Here develop a sense of security where individuals feel comfortable when they encounter and interact with other people.

e) Reduce stress

Family is one stress buster medicine that listens to your problems and issues and tries to calm you. Rather, they sometimes can't solve the problem but distract you from it and support you in fighting a situation at any cost. The study has concluded that people who spend time with their family and friends as a stress buffer instead of drinking alcohol, smoking, or doing drugs are most happy and healthy. Communicating with family helps reduce stress in major cases.

f) Improve physical & mental health

Family's unconditional love and support help us get through the most disastrous and best times. Family always works in a direction to bring out the best in you, even if you can't see it yourself. In the family, a mother generally takes care of her child's food, well-being, and physical health, working as she is more attached to a child and the father focuses on fulfilling. A family is where you let yourself free and a source of comfort, guidance, and strength that reduce stress and improve physical and mental health.

g) Boots self-confidence

Family is responsible for building an individual's self-confidence or self-esteem, which happens when they pay attention, show they are proud of their child, and let the child try whatever she wants. The family focuses on a child's positive or strengths and tries to help them in all ways to develop a positive attitude toward everything that happens in life that boosts an individual's self-confidence. In some cases, it is said that when the world doesn't believe you, only your family believes in your ability to succeed in situations.

h) Personality development

Personality helps each person to establish his identity or define someone. Personality can't be formed in one day. It is an ongoing development process that improves with the proper guidance of parents and teachers. A personality is made of human behavior, thoughts, characteristics, and feelings that initially develop during childhood within the family. What child learns from or in their family adapt that in their personality. Some personality traits like height, complexion, features, healthy physique, etc., received hereditary. Personality development is a part of human development that is affected by family as it is nature's masterpiece. It is responsible for creating a positive and negative impact on the child, which sometimes decides its future.

Disadvantages of Family

Rather family is a beautiful and safe gift where you can survive, but everyone has different parameters. Every good thing has some bad measures too, so let's learn some of the disadvantages of having a family:

a) Impose their dreams on children

In most cases, parents or family members see an extension of themselves in their children rather than a separate person with their hopes and aspiration. They were brought up with a dream that their children achieve what they couldn't. Whether child accepts this or not, they impose their dreams on them. The study has confirmed that parents impose their unfulfilled achievements on their kids to be fulfilled.

b) Pressurize the child

Parents constantly keep pressure on their children in the name of studies, learning, and remaining in competition with other children. They put their child in an unwanted race from birth and push them to excel in every field. A study in 2021 stated that 86% of parents pressured their kids to pay more attention to their kids because they grew up with a distant or negligent parent.

c) Hurt the children

No parent can dream of harming or hurting their child, but to stop their child from being harmed in the future, they hurt them physically, emotionally, and psychologically. To secure children and keep them secure, parents hit their children physically, torched them emotionally (by taunting, blaming, and accusing the child in front of peers and relatives), and other kinds of physical abuse.

Whatever the situation, it is not ok to harm the child it affect them mentally and emotionally. The highs and lows of the family affect the child mentally and emotionally. For example, disputes between family members, fight between parents daily, and hurdles created by some members who are jealous of you can negatively impact the child (mentally and emotionally). Fight between parents can affect the child most, it is declared by doctors worldwide. A once physical wound can be cured, but mental and emotional wounds remain though out a life that sometimes makes a child emotionally and mentally weak.

d) Dreams are ruined

Every child is different; therefore, its dreams are also different, but some parents' scenarios and thinking toward their child's dreams are the same. Some parents truly support their child's dreams, but those who don't agree have various reasons, such as:

• Some dreams of children are supposed to be unrealistic and immature that is destined to be destroyed by life in general
• Some dreams are not affordable by parents
• Parents don't believe in the dreams of their children and in their perspective dreams are unrealistic and can't be achieved.
• Want their child to handle their legacy and family business
• Due to their insecurity and over-caring nature, parents don't allow their children to go far away from them to chase their dreams.
• Parents think they are wise to choose a better career for their children.
• They are afraid of the failure and disappointment their child has to face, and to protect them; they ruin their dreams.
• Some parents don't pay attention to their childhood dream and never support them.
• The parents refuse a child's dreams against their religion and family thinking.

e) Need sacrifice

Making and surviving a family need various sacrifices from each family member. These sacrifices start from the two individual males or females who sacrifice their time, emotions, money, relationships, freedom, personal life, career, social life, food, desires, etc., to be in a relationship and transform into 'mom' & 'dad'. Parents dedicate their life to bringing up their children and making a successful, happy and lovely family.

f) Have to face home troubles

No family can be perfect beyond love, affection, and care, there are various ups and down, a family has to face to make their survival. For example:

• Separation and divorce of parents
• Bear the stress of money, housing problem, unemployment, and domestic violence
• The argument between parents, fights between family members, disagreements, clashing of thoughts due to different personalities, and jealousy between brother and sister.
• Abusing and neglecting of child
• Generation gap
• Medical problems to somebody in the family, including illness and disabilities

g) Responsible for spoiling family member

Spoiling a child is a common disadvantage of a family seen in every second family. Some families are responsible for spoiling their children even parents spoil themselves. Parents being too busy earning for having a lavish life, give everything to their child except time and love may spoil their child. A permissive parenting style is the main cause of spoiling a child in which parents don't set any boundaries or limits for the child. Being so lenient gives too much power to the child, which leads them to the wrong path in perusing life. A child doesn't respect anyone, becomes annoying and arrogant, can't handle emotions, cannot understand others' pain, etc.

h) Less Personnel space or limited space.

This problem is common in Indian families where sometimes no space is provided to the child or couples. Everyone needs personal space to help us stay safe in this modern world. Parents and family members interfere and try to control each part of their children, which sometimes becomes the root cause of aggression, hate, and fighting. Parents being insecure thought that space may lose control over the child and result in violation of relations. This problem mostly arises in joint families where everyone has to stay under one roof by caring for others' emotions and feelings, sometimes choking for someone.

i) Not having a positive relationship with every member.

As we have discussed above, every family has to deal with many issues, and the relationship between family members is one of them. If a family member always heads toward fighting, having disputes over money, land, etc., can lead to destruction. Not every family member needs to share a healthy relationship. Sometimes cousins share a loving bond, but siblings do not, which results in fighting and jealousy. Joint families have this kind of problem mainly where brothers, sisters, parents, and grandparents all have their reason for fighting.

j) Trust issues

A family has a different mindset, people living under one roof, and being a family, they don't need to have deep trust in each other, especially in this modern era where no one trusts each other and how families can be left untouched. Sometimes siblings don't trust each other, and family members have various trust issues that result in disputes and fights.

k) Burnout

Burnout is one of the major disadvantages of family, which can be seen in most families. Burnout is when a person feels depressed, shows addictive behavior, has lowered mood, has sleep disruption, or has a conflict with a partner. In this situation, a person feels emotionally and physically exhausted due to family. Parents who don't have emotional support, single parent, and some having high expectations of themselves are at higher of burnout. Symptoms of burnout:

• Loneliness, frustration, irritability, emotional detachment, depression, and a higher risk of anxiety
• Mental and physical exhaustion, where a person feels drained and tired all the time
• Escape ideas, feeling trapped and suicidal thoughts all the time
• Loss of interest and motivation in the activities which you enjoyed previously
• Drinking and smoking habit increases
• Increment in the intensity and frequency of conflict between parents
• The pressure of studies, achieving goals and being an all-rounder
• Parents and peer pressure

l) Loneliness

We humans need someone to listen to and support us and handle our ups and down. The orphan or one who loses his family accidentally knows the value of family because if you have a family, you are the richest person in the world, as you have someone to stand beside and behind you unconditionally. A person without family can be the victim of loneliness, leading to depression, anxiety, and other psychological problems.

m) Rigid traditions

Many cases have proved that some rigid traditions are responsible for destroying the family. Some orthodox families stuck to rigid traditions and bound their children to them. They force their child to follow that tradition and don't cross boundaries. They kept children under strict discipline, crushed their dreams, and suppressed them at every stage of life, which became the reason for many problems in the families.

Conclusion:

We have discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages of the family from which it is concluded that every individual needs a basic unit of society called the family to take birth, raise and live a life.

An individual's life takes a breath on the pillars of strength, encouragement, inspiration, and love a person receives from family.

Advantages and disadvantages depict the family as necessary in developing the child's personality, the way he sees himself, interpersonal; relations, and his view about the world, other people, society, etc. The two individuals, male or female, bound themselves in a relationship and produce children in an environment where they live independently, get the courage to face the world, survive and let themselves establish themselves in society. As no one is perfect same as with families, and no family is perfect, but with all the difficulties, people in a family life with love, care, and empathy.

It's true family is a family, after all.