The Benefits of Extended Families
TITLE
To what extent are extended families the best type of family to live in?
ESSAY
### To what extent are extended families the best type of family to live in?
#### Arguments For Extended Families:
Extended families offer several advantages that make them a favorable option for individuals:
1. **Greater Flexibility for Socialization**: Extended families provide a more flexible and supportive environment for effective primary socialization compared to nuclear families. The diversity of relationships within extended families allows for a wider range of social experiences and interactions.
2. **Vital Source of Support**: In today's society where divorce and single-parent families are common, extended families serve as a vital source of emotional, financial, and practical support. This can help individuals navigate challenging circumstances more effectively.
3. **Financial and Practical Support**: Extended families often offer financial support through loans and monetary gifts, as well as practical support such as childcare and household assistance. This can ease the burden on individual family members and foster a sense of communal responsibility.
4. **Emotional Support**: Female members of extended families, in particular, are known for offering valuable emotional support through active listening, communication, and advice. This emotional bond strengthens family ties and enhances overall well-being.
5. **Privacy and Autonomy**: Modified extended family structures allow for smaller family units to maintain privacy and autonomy while still benefiting from the support and contact of extended family members. Technology can facilitate communication and connection across distances.
6. **Inter-Generational Care**: Extended families play a crucial role in inter-generational care, with grandparents often providing childcare support and parents caring for elderly family members. This dynamic helps to foster bonds between different age groups and ensures comprehensive family care.
7. **Cultural Norm**: In some cultures, like South Asian communities, the extended family is considered a norm and a symbol of successful family life. Embracing this tradition can help individuals find belonging and purpose within their familial networks.
8. **Financial Benefits**: Sharing household and holiday costs within an extended family can help alleviate the rising cost of living and create a more sustainable financial environment for all members.
#### Arguments Against Extended Families:
Despite the benefits, extended families may not be the ideal family structure for everyone due to the following reasons:
1. **Lack of Privacy and Autonomy**: Extended families may not provide the level of privacy and autonomy that individuals expect in a modern, privatized society. The close-knit nature of extended families can sometimes feel intrusive or restrictive.
2. **Geographical Mobility**: In today's world, where geographical mobility is essential for employment opportunities, the rigid structure of extended families may not align well with the need to relocate for career advancement.
3. **Changing Values and Cultures**: As social mobility and diverse cultural values become more prevalent, traditional extended family ties may clash with evolving individual identities and beliefs. Adapting to these shifts can be challenging within an extended family framework.
4. **Globalization**: The global age has normalized international travel and employment, which may be difficult to reconcile with the localized support system of extended families. Individuals with global aspirations may find it limiting to remain tied to a specific familial network.
5. **Functionalists and New Right Perspective**: Functionalists and the New Right often advocate for the nuclear family as the most functional and suitable structure for modern society. Joint conjugal roles and individual autonomy are highlighted as key benefits of the nuclear family model.
6. **Feminist Critique**: Extended families can place disproportionate burdens on female members, such as caregiving responsibilities, which may hinder their personal freedom and independence. Other family structures may offer greater opportunities for female empowerment.
7. **Postmodern Perspective**: In a postmodern society characterized by diversity and individualism, the notion of a 'best' type of family becomes subjective and context-dependent. Different families may suit the unique needs and values of individuals and societies.
In conclusion, while extended families offer numerous advantages in terms of support, flexibility, and cultural significance, they may not be universally suitable for all individuals. The choice of the best family structure ultimately depends on personal preferences, cultural norms, and societal dynamics. Each family type has its strengths and limitations, and the ideal family setting varies based on the specific circumstances and values of those involved.
SUBJECT
SOCIOLOGY
LEVEL
O level and GCSE
NOTES
To what extent are extended families the best type of family to live in?
Arguments for:
- Criticisms of the nuclear family as being too intense and privatised for its members means that the greater flexibility of the extended family is better for effective primary socialisation.
- With divorce and single parent families being increasingly common today, extended families are often a vital source of support (emotional, financial, practical, etc.).
- Extended families offer extensive financial support to their members through loans and monetary gifts.
- Extended families offer a lot of practical support to their members, such as looking after the grandchildren while parents are at work.
- Extended families, particularly female members, are seen to offer valuable emotional support to their wider family members through listening, talking, and offering advice.
- Modified extended families allow smaller family units the privacy and autonomy they desire while still being a constant and effective source of contact and support, often through the use of technology.
- For the pivot generation, extended families may be crucial in terms of grandparents looking after grandchildren and parents caring for their own elderly parents.
- In some cultures, the extended family is both a norm and a sign of a successful family life (e.g. South Asian communities).
- With a rising cost of living, extended families are often the best option in terms of sharing household and holiday costs.
- Any other reasonable response.
Arguments against:
- The extended family does not allow for the privacy and autonomy that individuals expect and want in a privatised contemporary society.
- With the need to be geographically mobile today in order to get employment, it is difficult to see how the extended family is the best fit for such a society.
- As social mobility becomes more normal due to increasing participation in non-compulsory education, the extended family ties are difficult to fit in with newly formed values and cultures.
- We now live in a global age, meaning that international travel and employment are increasingly normalized. This would be difficult to combine with an extended family structure.
- It is the nuclear family, rather than the extended family, that functionalists and the New Right claim is the best fit for modern society, e.g., is more functional, allows for joint conjugal roles, etc.
- Feminism – extended families may place a burden on female members (e.g., the care role or restricting personal freedom); other families allow for greater female independence.
- Postmodernism – as societies become increasingly diverse, so do families, and so there is no longer a ‘best’ type of family – this depends on the needs of the individuals and the society.
- Any other reasonable response.