Joint family in India

What is a family? More than one person living together is a family and there should be blood relation among them. In olden days, everybody in the family would respect and obey the words of the eldest person in a family. Whether right or wrong, his decision would be final. Living in a group is the basic characteristic of humanity and everybody would show love and affection towards other members in the family. The family members would get security when they live together. All the responsibilities and the works of the family would be shared. All the members would be getting support from other members in the family, in the activities outside the family. The nurturing of children is not at all a problem. As per Indian culture, the joint family is the traditional form of living and everybody accepted this way of living, in the olden days. Recently, there is a sudden change in the lifestyle which gave way to separate families. Many joint families broke into smaller separate families with a father, mother and children. In India, have we lost the charm of joint family? In a joint family the children would have got more security than in the separate family, because in a separate family both the father and mother would be employed and the children would have to spend most of their time in loneliness. The little time available to the parents would be spent in performing the household works. The parents could provide whatever the child needs in the form of money, comforts, all the treasures and luxuries. But, what about the love and affection they missed from grandparents and other elders? Of course, in a separate family the parents are more affectionate towards the children and they do lot of sacrifices for the sake of children. The child needs physical development, social development and emotional development in the growing age. They learn the qualities of interacting with others, learning from others and sharing with others, in a joint family well than in separate family. In a separate family the child has to keep attachment on non-living things only, as the parents would be out of home for most of the time. The parents would be hunting for money in order to keep the child happy. Money alone will not bring all the happiness in the world. The family values should be taught to the children by their parents. The parents should take up the duties of all elders in the joint family. At times, it may happen that when all the members in the family scatter and form small separate families, the elders in the family would be left out uncared. It is not proper to leave the elders of the family and neglect them, because they are aged and suffering from illness. They might have done a lot to us in the early stage and it is our duty to show gratitude to them. We should take proper care of them until they die peacefully, in a normal way. It is our primary duty and we should not forget it, while living in a separate family also. The appropriate arrangement for taking care of them should be made. In tune with change of time, the lifestyle has been changed so as to bring all the family members in one place, at the time of functions and festivals. That is good. We may live in separate families but our hearts should be united, to extend any type of help to other family members at any time. The love and affection should be forever and separate family should not be a barrier to such things. The charm of joint family should not be lost at any cost. We should strive hard to keep the family values intact and our children should inherit all the good qualities of joint family and adapt it to separate family, without loosing the essence of charm.   Source: SACHING