Family living

FAMILY

People of all known cultures live in family groups. Such groups range from two people to extended families, in which grandparents, parents, and children share a home. The most common family unit is the nuclear famliy, consisting of a mother, a father, and their children.

Family is one of the oldest and most common human institutions. Since prehistoric times, the family has been an important organization in society. Most people grow up within a family and, as adults, establish a family of their own.

The term family commonly means a group of related people who share a home. The word family also refers to all a person's ancestors and other relatives. Most families are based on kinship — that is, the members belong to the family through birth, marriage, or adoption. However, some groups that are not based on kinship think of themselves as a family because they share a home or feel ties of affection. For example, foster children and their foster parents are not related by adoption, birth, or marriage. But they live together and consider themselves a family.

In most industrialized Western countries, the typical famliy consists of a mother, a father, and one or two children. However, there are many other types of family structures. The smallest family unit consists of two persons, such as a parent and child or a couple who share a home and companionship. When a couple have children, the parents and their children make up a nuclear family. If married children and their offspring live with the parents, the family is called an extended family. An extended family’s household might also include aunts, uncles, and cousins. Such relatives, along with grandparents, grandchildren, and others, form part of an extended family group even if they live in separate homes. Some cultures recognize a large kinship unit called the clan. A clan consists of all people who are descended from a common ancestor through their mothers or fathers side of the family.The family fulfils many important functions in society,but the kinds of functions vary from one culture to another. In most societies, the family is the social unit into which children are born. The family also provides protection and training for the children. Human beings are born helpless and need care for several years after birth. Family life also helps children become familiar with the culture of their society. The family provides economic support for its members. Commonly, the adults receive income from jobs, investments, public welfare, or other sources. This money is then shared with the other members of the family. In some cases, the family functions as a group to make a living. All family members work together at farming or some other economic activity. The family may also be a means of preserving property. The children become heirs to their parents' land and other wealth. One function of the family in industrialized societies is to meet certain emotional and social needs of family members. Each member is expected to provide the others with affection, emotional support, and a sense of belonging.

Family living

In many industrialized countries, people are increasingly turning away from traditional family patterns. They adopting new roles for family members and various kinds of family structures. Many of these changes reflect scientific, economic, and social developments and changing attitudes. For example, modern birth control methods enable couples to limit the size of their family and to space their children. Many young people are postponing marriage and childbearing, and many couples want to have fewer children than people had in the past.

The number of employed married women has beengrowing dramatically in industrialized countries. In the United States, for example, the percentage of married women who work outside the home has risen from about 15 per cent in 1940toabout55per centtoday. This increase has led to many changes in family life. It has contributed to the ideał of the egualitarian family, in which each member is respected and neither parent tries to be the head of the family.

Divorce has become more and more common. In the United States, statistics indicate that about half the mar­riages that took place during the 1970’s arę likely to end in divorce. In the United Kingdom, the divorce rate more than trebled between 1968 and 1987. But divorced peo­ple often remarry. This fact suggests that many divorced people have not given up on family life. Instead, they believe they can find happiness in marriage with a new partner.

Home life.

The home is the centre of family activities. These activities include caring for the children, playing games, watching television, housekeeping, and entertaining friends. In the home, children learn basic social skills, such as how to talk and how to get along with oth­ers. They also learn health and safety habits there. In addition, family meals can be a major source of nutrition for family members.

A family’s home life is influenced by which members live in the home and by the roles each member plays. Home life can also be affected by relatives who live outside the familys home. Traditions, laws, and social conditions help determine who lives in a home and the place each family member holds.

Traditions, which are based on a family’s cultural background, strongly influence family life. Families can differ on account of their cultural heritage. For example, some people have little contact with relatives outside the nuclear family. But many others— especially those who belong to such cultural groups as the Chinese, Indians, Hispanics, and West Indians - feel strong ties to such relatives and see them often. Aunts, uncles, and cousins traditionally are important in the lives of these people.

Laws regulate family behaviour in various ways. Generally, these laws set forth the legał rights and responsibilities people have as husbands, wives, parents, and children. The laws forbid abuse of children by parents, and of one spouse by the other. Family laws also deal with marriage, divorce, and adoption.

Social conditions can affect family life in many ways. For example, black men have sometimes been discriminated against in getting weil-paying jobs in some countries. Thus, black wives have been more likely than white wives to work outside the home in those coun- tries, to help support the family. As a result, many of those black wives have tended to have morę authority in family affairs than have the white wives.

The nuclear family, consisting of a husband, a wife, and their children, is considered the traditional family in many industrialized countries. As husband and wife, the couple hope to share companionship, love, and a sexual relationship. As parents, they are required by law to

feed, clothe, shelter, and educate their children.

Children depend on their parents for love and the basic necessities of life. The children, in turn, give emo tional support to their parents and to their brothers and sisters. As the children grow older, they may be given various household chores. Most grown children eventually leave their parents' home.

Traditionally, the father is required to support his wife and children. The mother is expected to run the home and care for the children. In many families, the fa ther alone makes the major family decisions and is considered the head of the family.

Today, however, many people are turning away from these traditional family roles and toward an equalitarian relationship. The parents make family decisions together. They hołd the authority in the family but try to consider the children's opinions. The children may express their desires and opinions, and they have much freedom within the family. In most such families, both parents probably work outside the home. The father parents probably work outside the home. The father may help out more in taking care of the children. The father and children may share in chores that were traditionally performed by the mother alone, such as wash ing clothes, cleaning the house, and cooking.

Other family pattems.

Not all people choose to marry and live in a nuclear family. For example, some married couples decide not to have children. Also some couples cohabit (live together without marryingl They want the companionship of another person but for various reasons, prefer not to marry. Some such cou- pies have children and live as a nuclear family, and some cohabiting couples eventually do marry. Although an increasing number of couples arę deciding to cohabit some people object to cohabitation because it conflicts with their morał standards.

In some cases, divorced or widowed parents choose not to remarry. Instead, they and their children live together as a single-parent family. In most cases of divorce, the children stay with their mother, but they may visit their father regularly. A judge might require the father to help support his children. However, more divorced fathers are sharing with the mother custody of their children. In many such cases, working mothers must contribute to their children's support. Increasingly, never-married fathers and mothers are deciding to raise their biological or adopted children in a single-parent family. In some families, children of single mothers are raised by their grandparents.

Some groups of people live together as communal families. The members of a communal family might include married and unmarried couples, single adults,and children. They might share child care, housework,and living expenses.

Family problems.

Almost every family has problems as a normal part of living together. Many problems can be worked out in the home. But some problems are difficult to solve. Unsolved problems may result in unhappiness and lead to a breakdown of the family.

The question of divorce can be one of the most serious problems a family may face. Divorce can affect everymember of the family deeply. The husband and wife must make a new life for themselves, and the children may grow up in a fatherless or motherless home. Today, divorced women and their children make up an increasing proportion of the poor. But many experts believe that living with only one parent may be better for children than living with both parents in an unhappy home.

Couples get divorced for numerous reasons. One of the main reasons is that they expect a great deal from family life. Many people expect the family to be a constant source of love and personal satisfaction. However, family members spend much of their time at work, in school, and at other places outside the home. Thus, they have limited time together to give one another emotional support. Their experiences outside the home affect their behaviour in the family. They might not always feel as loving as they arę expected to be.

Other problems may result from remarriages by di- vorced or widowed people. Such remarriages create the blended family of wife, husband, and each of their own children. Quarrels between the new couple over their children arę sources of conflict and new divorces. Children naturally have mixed feelings about their new family. They become painfully certain that their biologi-cal parents will not be reunited. Children who were very close to the single parent may feel displaced and jeal-ous because the stepparent has a special and private relationship with their parent Children also may feel fondness and love for their new family but be scared that the new marriage also will end in divorce or death. In addition, children may see their feelings of love as a mark of disloyalty to the absent parent.

The rights and obligations between stepparent and stepchildren may seem different than those taken forgranted between biological parents and children. Parents may recognize such differences, for example, in their right to discipline. Thus, stepparents and children are generally challenged to deal with many feelings that are not present in biological families.

MARRIAGE

MARRIAGE is the relationship between a man and a woman who have made a legal agreement to live together. When a man and woman marry, they become husband and wife.Marriage is also an important religious ceremony in many of the world's religions.

Most couples decide to marry because they love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together. A man and woman who marry hope to share a special relationship and a permanent romantic attraction. But each hopes the other will always be a close friend as well. Each also expects the other to help with many problems and to share certain responsibilities. These resonsibilities include earning a living, budgeting money, paying bills, preparing meals, and taking care of home.

Most couples who marry plan to have children and to raise them together. A husband and wife are required by law to protect and care for their children. Marriage thus serves as the basis of family life.

Many people choose never to marry. Some of them may not find a person with whom they want to share their life. Others may not want the many responsibilities required of a successful marriage. Still others prefer to stay unmarried because they enjoy their independence.

Many married couples find they are not happy as husband and wife. Some marriages fail because the man and woman married when they were young and inexperieced in many ways. People who marry before they are 18 years old are much more likely to have unsucessful marriages than if they nad waited until they were older A man and woman also have less of a chance of I achieving a happy marriage if they marry primarily because the woman is pregnant And if a man and woman differ in age, race, religion, or background, their chances of a successful marriage drop significantly.

In many countries, the rate of divorce among young couples has increased sharply since the mid-1960’s. Statistics indicate that about half the marriages that took place during the 1970’s are likely to end in divorce. Most divorced people remarry, and many have a successful marriage with another partner.

Preliminaries to marriage.

In India and many other countries, most marriages are arranged by parents' deciding whom their children will marry. But in most parts of Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and Norm America, nearly eyeryone makes his or her own decision about whom and when to marry.

Before people marry, they go out with members of the opposite sex. A man and woman who go out with each other spend a lot of time together learning to know the other person. After they have been together for some time, they may find that they love each other and decide to become engaged. In many cases, the man gives the woman an engagement ring as a token of their agreement to marry. The use of a ring as an engagement token comes from the ancient custom of using a ring to seal an important agreement.

The age at which people start going out together varies widely. But generally, the younger that a man and a woman are when they meet, the younger they are when they marry.

Most men and women marry people they live near, or with whom they work or go to school. Most people also marry those whom they consider attractive and who, in turn, regard them as attractive. In addition, people tend to marry the jndividuals who are like themselves in certain ways. For example, people of the same nationality, race, and religion tend to marry each other. A man and woman are more likely to marry if they have similar sociał and educational backgrounds. They are also more likely to marry if they are about the same age.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16