Growing trend of nuclear families

Growing trend of nuclear families

Most of the middle class people are now sticking to smaller families.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages.

It is absolutely true that there is a growing trend towards nuclear families. The big Indian joint family comprising of uncles, aunts and cousins living under one roof seems to be a thing of the past.

Taking the example of Delhi itself, most of the households comprise nuclear families with at most married couples living with their parents. According to the census report of Delhi 2011,” the largest number of households — 69.5% — has only one married couple. At 17.1%, houses with two married couples are a distant second, and houses with more than two married couples are minuscule”.

Over the past decades, major social trends in marriage and increasing work related stress has altered the structure of families in most big cities like Delhi.

However, since both the parents are working these days in most of the middle class families, they feel that nuclear family system gives them more time for themselves, and their children. Some of the Sociologists even feel the same that nuclear families provide a lot of scope for parents to turn all their attention to the child.

Another set of sociologists however feel that nuclear families fail to teach children the importance of close knit relatives, strong family bonds and social norms.

Some parents argue that though children get lot of love and care in joint families, but the level of scrutiny is also higher on the child. For example, if the child makes a mistake, not only the parents but other family members may also haul on him or counsel him, this may make the child uncomfortable.

Also, chances of difference in opinion are much higher in joint families. Bigger the families, more difficult it becomes to maintain harmony among all the members. Hence, chances of stress are also higher in joint families.

But one cannot forget that the level of fun and enjoyment during celebrations like festivals, birthdays etc is much higher in joint families.

This is a never ending debate. Hence, care should be taken while deciding the family type so that it involves consensus of all the members of the family and makes everyone happy and comfortable. Nuclear families should only divide the inconvenience of so many members staying together as a joint family without dividing the bond between the family members.