When someone mentions the word “family”, we people tend to get emotional, happy and a bit of perplexed, may be that’s because we have a serious deep connection with our family which is clearly a part of us. Family is something that can make you happy and gloomy at the same time, it can be your strength as well as weakness. Usually, family structures are of 3 different types 1. Nuclear family, 2. Sub-nuclear family and 3. Joint family.
Nuclear family usually includes two parents with one or two children. With two prime parent structure, the nuclear family is considered, to be ideal by society because of stability of the peace, financial opportunities and management. On the other hand, a sub-nuclear family includes the same two parent and children but they stay connected with their root family back at their native place. Visiting once-in a while, becomes more usual in this form of families. However, this type of nuclear family structure gets a little dependent on their original family which is somehow manageable up to a level.
Joint family is the most traditional form of family structure and is also known as extended family. It typically includes three or more generations with their spouses and children, living in a single household. In India, joint families are quite common because from the vedic times this kind of family structure was very popular. Living in a joint family has its own advantages and disadvantages because you are bound to live with different people under one roof who are actually in your blood relation which becomes quite stressful yet exciting and unmanageable yet supportive at the same time. Let’s get to the advantages and disadvantages:
8 Advantages of Living in a Joint Family
- Sharing is caring is what you first learn in a joint family. Whether it’s food, stuffs or even the rooms, in joint family siblings mostly share everything. Not only stuffs but also when you’re happy or sad you share your feelings and life gets quite easier.
- Family time is fun time. Family who eats together, stays together. It’s true. Family while dinning becomes more lively, vibrant and entertaining. All members of the family share their days events and experiences, some shoot giggling gags which strengthens the togetherness in the family.
- No fear of being alone is one of the real advantage of living in a joint family. With so many members at your home, constant gossiping or talks will never let you feel alone even if you are in your room. Someone somehow will find a way to disturb you anytime making your fear of loneliness gone.
- Shared household chores is another perk of joint family. In such huge families, household chores can never be that exhausting. All the members step in to share some work which makes it lot easier managing household chores, such as doing dishes, filling water bottles, cooking and cutting veggies, laundry and dusting. More the number of members, more the help you get.
- Less financial pressure is mostly seen in joint families. All the income holders pay their shares to run the household administration but when one member out of them is unable to pay for a month or more due to some reason, there are other members to get his back.
- Great environment for kids if you’re in a joint family. Children get company all the time to have fun and they spend time with different relations such as grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunts, cousins which make them more exposed to different ideas, thoughts and lessons.
- Learning culture and values, is one of the best advantage of living in a joint family. In joint or extended families the older generation members always stay intact with their culture, tradition and values. It becomes their legacy and they try to pass it on to their younger generations in the family. And if the older generation members are more firm about their legacy, you ought to learn all the culture and values someday.
- Improved social skills is another benefit staying in a joint family. A joint family always comprises of members with different age groups having different views, opinions, styles and approaches. When you live in the family, you communicate with them and you tend to know them in a better way, which means you’re very much flexible in absorbing diversified styles and approaches making you well improved in social skills.
8 Disadvantages of Living in a Joint Family
- Financial responsibility can be a drawback too if you’re from a joint family. When one member fails to share the expenses of house for a reason or does that on purpose to increase his savings, financial burden might affect one of the house member or head of the house, leading to stress and brawls.
- Lack of management is a very common disadvantage of living in a joint family because with so many people and different choices, habits, nature and ideas, administrating system can crash at some point. For example, you cannot keep track of every grocery stuff entering your kitchen and where they are stored for an instance. Or if someone misplaces a stuff, you might not find it for someday and go for buying another one which makes your expenses double.
- Kitchen woes is the-every household story. If you’re from a joint family, I can absolutely understand your pain, my friend. So many people under the same roof with different choices, preferences and habits can be a real headache especially when it comes to catering. You cannot absolutely cook everyone’s preferred food everyday because it will take a whole lifetime. Hypothetically! Just imagine, at my native place the number of house members in my family is 22, so does that mean, the kitchen warriors have to cook 22 different dishes every day. NO, right? But what if it includes vegetarian and non-vegetarian food preferences, because that’s something beyond our control. Right there, it’s a whole nightmare.
- Compromised privacy is another disadvantage of living in a joint family. When you watching television and you want to watch something important of your choice but there comes chaos of few siblings fighting for, snatching remote control. Even if you’re in your room seeking privacy to do something but anyone can just barge into your room without even knocking can be a serious headache.
- Impact on children discipline system is what every parent feel, in a joint family. If your child does something wrong and needs a quick scold but one or two of your family members hop into the situation taking their back and blocking the session which makes children more mischievous and stubborn.
- Multiple decision making authorization is a common issue in joint families. A simple decision has to run through each and every member of the family to get the green signal, which means if you want to go on a study tour, it takes 11 people’s approval.
- Different opinions create fights and misunderstandings. Yeah that’s so true. When everyone gets to decide every single thing that happens in your family then there will be different opinions and ideas that might not be approved or agreed by few others which makes it more complicated, leading to misunderstandings, fights, quarrels.
- Regular chaos, happens every minute in every joint family. Something is always there that goes on. Silence or peace is something you can’t find in these families. Concentration and focus becomes a huge challenge when you’re living in a joint family.
But still, family comes first. Family is like an umbrella whose crucial role is never discovered until stormy clouds emerge over your head. No matter, how much serious trouble you’re in, family will always have your back.
