Changing Face of Family

Changing Face of Family

( By Rounakshi Dey )

Image By:- Sukriti Singh

 

“The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is family,” said Lee Iacocca.  The Family is said to be the basic building block of society. The community we live in comprises of several families staying together in harmony. How can we define this basic unit of society? The family is said to be the group of people that have a legal bond or a genetic bond among themselves. This is a formal definition of a family. However family is just not made by people, it encompasses the emotional bonds with each other. Family is the biggest support of an individual. When we know that the entire world has turned back to us, it is our family who never closes its door on us. No matter what the circumstances are we can always have our family as our biggest support system.

Old Times:

If we go back fifty years from now, we see a completely different existence of family life in India. India is rich in its culture, tradition, and heritage. We always preferred close-knit bonds among ourselves.  In the older times, we found grandparents, parents, and children along with the families of cousins staying together in the same house. In spite of the economic status of each member, people stayed together, ate the same food, shared happiness and joy together. However, slowly this concept of the traditional family started breaking, the cousins got separated among themselves. Even if they shared the same household, the money got divided. They no longer ate together or shared the family burden together. But still, they were there for each other in difficult times as well as happy times. Slowly each family shifted to their own household. The advantage of this joint family system was that no one was ever lonely or left out. People knew their support system. Grandparents passed their time telling stories to their grandchildren. Traditions and values were transferred from one generation to another. Everyone was brought up with the same family values. Household chores were never a burden. Everything got shared. However, individual opinions, desires got buried. No one was allowed to think or make a decision for themselves. The approval of the entire family was required. The joint family system was rigid in its ways. A joint family was about having a single voice, individual voices never played a part in it.

New Age Families:

As the families started separating, now we have a family comprising of only our grandparents, parents, and children. The grandparents sometimes do not stay with their children. Old Age home has become a new normal nowadays. As people age, they are shifted to Old age homes against their wishes. Because now, their children have no time for them. Our grandparents are lonelier than we are. This type of family having only parents and their children is termed as a nuclear family. In a nuclear family, the parents are busy with their work. In this age, as opposed to the previous times, the women along the men are the bread-earners of the family. Everyone is independent and their views are accepted. But this family system makes one lonely. The children don’t have grandparents to listen to the stories. They are brought up by house helps. The parents are busy with their own life. People become distant, lonely, depressed. Family values and traditions are no longer passed from one generation to the other. The increasing case of depression and suicide roots back to this system of family. Though this nuclear family allows individual opinions to be voiced, at the same time making us lonely and sad.

Co-Existing:

This is the concept of the new era. Though this concept hasn’t still become popular in our country, it is practiced for years in western countries. The younger generation of our country now believes in coexisting rather than starting a family together. Previously, families were formed by getting into marital bonds. Nowadays, young people are coexisting and living together without getting into legal marital bonds. This makes a family with just two members. This coexisting is the new face of the family system. Though it’s a very popular concept in the West, India is very slowly accepting this new culture. We also have another concept of Childfree couples. Previously it was a social norm to give birth to a child once two people got legally married. However, nowadays many couples are embracing the concept of Childfree Couple, i.e. they decide not to give birth to a child or embrace parenthood. This is also a very new concept of the family system.

Family System has evolved from the past, from a close-knit joint family system to co-existing. We are shifting towards western thought and culture. India is known for its deep cultural values. However, it seems that the youth has forgotten those. Individual thoughts and opinions are always respected. It is an individual’s choice whether he or she wants to get legally married or coexist. It is again a couple’s choice of embracing parenthood, a child should never be a society’s norm. At the same time, when we get rid of the old shackles of the norms of society, we should always remember that taking care of others is not something to be forgotten. Shifting our old parents to old age homes is nothing but getting rid of our responsibilities. This should never be practiced. After all, we are human beings, we need each other to exist. Even if families live in different houses, it is important to keep regular contact with each other, to make sure that everyone we refer to as our family is physically as well as mentally doing well. Because at the end of the day, Family means no one is left behind or forgotten…

Disclaimer:-

The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.