Like they said, “The more the merrier”. According to Ogawa and Retherford 1993, the frequency of extended family households has begun to decline in some Asian societies, but interestingly has been shown to have increased for the first time in decades in the United States from 10 percent to 12 percent between 1980 and 1990, by Glick 1997. Extended family doesn’t mean it has to be biological family such as grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins but it also include Godparents and adopted children too, and this may vary in some cultures.More families also means more benefits. In terms of their finance, every units of the family can share the same bills because they share the same roof.
If every adults in the house is working and have a secure job, the possibility of their monthly income for the family in total will be much greater than the nuclear family have for their home maintenance and needs. Extended family can also be effective for the low-income urban families.This has been proven by Ford and Harris 1991, stated, ‘The importance of extended family households and networks has also been shown among low-income urban African Americans; considerable research points to the benefits of grandmothers in single-parent households and extra-household extended family networks as important mechanisms for coping with inadequate financial resources’ Apart from sharing of bills and money, extended family can also share their household equipment. Sharing things in a family will educate them to be more responsible especially in children.Hence it will create sense of responsibility in their family.
What is more, they don’t have to buy things they already have. Simple example would be vehicle. They can share vehicle to go to their destinations. Children who live with multigenerational family become very understanding in terms of the use of community in their family. They learn to be social and help each other.
Furthermore, the diverse setting in the difference of age or at the peer level of age in children helps them to understand the community in their life much better. The elderly can take care of the young one when their parents go to work.This will create a strong bond between the families, and also the elderly can share the folklore and fairytales so that the culture of the ‘old fashion’ way can be inherited to the children and this will continue the cycle to the next generation. Based on Glick research in 2000, government services have made extended family life less important for the care of the elderly, yet if programs such as social security and welfare continue to receive less funding, the extended family may become important in compensating for the lack of these services.
The elderly can have the benefits of been taken care by the units of the family in the house. In conclusion, the outlook of living in an extended family is unclear but the benefits should be take into account that extended family can be as successful as nuclear family. Both types of family have the same problems such as financial issue. Nevertheless, with having more families such as brother or sister in-laws family living in your house could lessen the burden on your hands.
