A family is a group of people who live together. They share the housework and take care of one another. There are three types of family: nuclear family, single-parent family and extended family. A Nuclear Family is made up of father, mother and one or more children living together. A Joint Family made up of father, mother, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, and nephews. The “nuclear” family is not a recent phenomenon, but has existed in many cultures throughout human history.
Indeed, the extended family of several generations is found mostly in relatively advanced, stable, and affluent, but not yet industrialized societies. Very primitive and very sophisticated societies seem to prefer the nuclear family model. However, nuclear families can vary in the degree of their isolation and restrictedness. For example, before the Industrial Revolution the Western nuclear family was often embedded in a larger social unit, such as a farm or estate, an aristocratic court, or a village populated by relatives.
Many older city neighbourhoods also kept kinship ties strong, and thus even very small families remained open to the community. Family visits might be frequent and extended; children might freely circulate and feel at home in several households. The traditional nuclear family basically is made up of a father, mother and a couple of children or so, and hence is compact and small. The father’s role is of providing for the family as well as protecting it, while also being the family’s disciplinary role model.
The woman’s role within the traditional nuclear family consists of housework and motherhood. In recent decades, this traditional form of the family has undergone major changes, with increasing rates of divorce leading to single-parent families, remarriages, resulting in extended families. These trends and the resulting problems that they cause, especially for the children, has brought the advantages of traditional nuclear families back into focus.
So, Here are Some of the Main Advantages of the Nuclear Family: A Stable Environment: Children raised in a family with the same parents during their growing years have a higher likelihood of having stability in their relationship and emotional bonding. Children that grow up in a single-parent household have higher chances of feeling a sense of loss regarding the absent parent, and miss out on the advantage of the emotional support and dual insights that both a father and a mother can provide.
Behavioural Stability: With both the father and the mother, children get a better sense of what is acceptable and unacceptable, as far as behaviour is concerned, especially when both the parents look after their nurturing. When both parents agree on the kind of behaviour that they want from their children, it adds authority, and thus can be instilled in a better way. Sharing Responsibility: With two parents sharing the responsibility of raising the children, it enables one parent to take time to pursue other interests or get a rest while the other parent plays or works with the children.
Children that are raised in a traditional nuclear family also tend to take on some of the sharing of the responsibilities, such as older siblings taking care of younger siblings. In a nuclear family, such roles are usually performed by expectation and example, rather than formal instruction. Skill building: When a child is a member of a nuclear family, the child will often receive more extensive life skills training as a result.
For example, a mother is more likely to teach relationship skills, such as how to get along with others and emotional response skills while a father is more likely to challenge a child to develop sports or handiwork skills, such as how to hit a baseball or how to fix things, and how to relate to the outside world such as employment skills or driving skills. Physical and Emotional Support: Nuclear families usually have more physical and emotional resources with which they can reinforce the whole. Through observing their parents and by following the examples set by them, children learn how to help in the building of the family.
