Joint Family-A boon to the Growing Child

With the urbanisation and nuclear families gaining more ground, we don’t get to realise what we and our children must have been missing by not following our traditional practice of a joint family. A joint family system may have its drawbacks but it is surely a boon to the growing child.

In a house full of close ones like parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts etc. a small child gets the opportunity to enjoy and cherish the love and affection of so many around. He or she gets to share things with his/her cousins and thus grows into a person who learns to live with the fact that there are other people in the world besides himself or his parents. Thus he grows more sensitive, well balanced, less self-centred and more social. It is surely healthy for a child to have company whereby he finds various channels of communication. He gets to relate to people of all age-groups. If he needs a piece of good advice he can look up to so many. He doesn’t have to depend just on maid-servants for physical care.

A joint family, living in harmony, is undoubtedly a heavenly option for a growing child, especially in our times of stress and struggle for adults. It is a boon for him/her and there can’t be two opinions on this.