FAMILY

A family can be viewed as groups of people related by blood, marriage or even adoption.

TYPES OF FAMILY

1.     Nuclear Family - consists of only father, mother, child/children living in one roof.

2.     Extended Family - a family that includes in one household near relatives in addition to a nuclear family (eg. grandparents)

3.     Single Parent - this consist of just a father or a mother taking care or living with of his or her child.

4.     Compound Type- two Single Parent types of families together. There goes what we call step-father/mother and step-sisters/brothers.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY TO THE CHILD

1.     Children in their middle years treasure their families and feel they are special and irreplaceable.

2.     Families provide children with a sense of belonging and a unique identity.

3.     Families are, or should be, a source of emotional support and comfort, warmth and nurturing, protection and security.

4.     Family relationships provide children with a critical sense of being valued and with a vital network of historical linkages and social support.

5.     Within every healthy family there is a sense of reciprocity—a giving and taking of love and empathy by every family member.

6.     Families are much more than groups of individuals. They have their own goals and aspirations.

7.     They also are places where every child and adult should feel that he or she is special and be encouraged to pursue his or her own dreams; a place where everyone's in­dividuality is permitted to flourish.

8.     Although every family has conflicts, all the family members should feel as though they can ex­press themselves openly, share their feelings, and have their opinions listened to with understanding. In fact, conflicts and disagreements are a normal part of family life and are important insofar as they permit people to communicate their differences and ventilate their feelings.

9.     The family instructs children and gives guidance about personal values and social behavior.

10.                        It instills discipline and helps them learn and internalize codes of conduct that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

11.                        It helps them develop positive interpersonal relationships, and it provides an environment that encourages learning both in the home and at school.

12.                        It gives children a sense of history and a secure base from which to grow and develop.

Yet, as im­portant as these functions are, they do not happen automatically. Every par­ent knows it takes hard work to keep the family going as an effective, adaptive, and functional unit.

FAMILY LIFE ROLES TO A CHILD

A family unit is the unit which builds up a person’s personality. How you behave and what you become in life is very much dependent on your family life. Psychologists believe that a child learns the most from his or her family life. The way your family members deal with you has a lifelong effect on your personality. Keeping in view all these facts the importance of your family life cannot be denied. Family unit happens to be the most important part of your life till you grow up. The children are usually closer to their parents and their siblings as compared to any other person in the world. As the children grow up they find good friends, spouses, their own kids and colleagues to share their lives with. Although time brings this change but the importance of family remains there. The children who have a sound family background and who belong to a family with strong family ties are almost always happier. Thus one cannot deny the importance of family life.

The life with your family is very important it plays a major role from when one is a child till one gets fully grown. The goals you set for yourself in your life are very much dependent on the life you have with your family. Those children who belong to the families which have a rich education background tend to learn more. They are interested in learning more and thus it is easy for their parents to get them educated. Similarly, for example, children who belong to a family from which a few of the people are in the field of professional sports, the kids tend to have an interest in sports and they also plan to go into the same field. The sons and daughters of stars from the film industries usually plan to follow the suit of their parents. Thus it is the effect of your family life which guides you to decide what profession you want to do as an adult.

Family life is also important in the sense that it gives you your basic strength as a person. The people who have a smooth and well settled family life are generally less scared of life. Those who are a part of a broken family are generally less confident. These people always expect the worst in life. This is a general state of mind which results in building up of a negative personality. Family life is also important to people as it is the part of our life which has more effect on us compared to any other part of our life. The way a mother treats her kids is actually the deciding factor of what those kids will be like as human beings when they grow up.

As important as family life is, it is a big problem in the world of today where the family units are breaking up more often and the divorce rates have grown very high. The higher divorce rates result in more broken families that in turn lead to a lot more number of children who suffer through this insecurity in their early ages and as a result they are not that stable. These people tend to have a variety of fears and insecurity. They do not have the courage to face their life. As family life plays a very important role in shaping you as a person, lack of security in your family life makes you a bit unstable as a person.

In today’s world a big social problem is that the family unit is not being considered as important by the people as it used to be. In many parts of the world the time period for which people live together as a family is shrinking. The family life adds a sense of responsibility in your personality which lacks in those people who have not had a very nice family life.

REFERENCES

1.     Schneider, David 1984 A Critique of the Study of Kinship. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 182

2.     Deleuze-Guattari (1972). Part 2, ch. 3, p. 80

3.     Russon, John, (2003) Human Experience: Philosophy, Neurosis, and the Elements of Everyday Life, Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 61–68.

4.     George Peter Murdoch Social Structure p. 13

5.     Northey, William F. Journal of Marital & Family Therapy, October 2009, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p531-532, Database: Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson)

6.     Wolf, Eric. 1982 Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California Press. 92

7.     Harner, Michael 1975 "Scarcity, the Factors of Production, and Social Evolution," in Population. Ecology, and Social Evolution, Steven Polgar, ed. Mouton Publishers: the Hague.

8.     Rivière, Peter 1987 "Of Women, Men, and Manioc", Etnologiska Studien (38).

9.     Oregonstate.edu, Nuclear family – "A family group consisting of wife, husband (or one of these) and dependent children." – Definitions of Anthropological Terms – Anthropological Resources – (Court Smith) Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University.