What are the Emerging pattern of family living?

1. Both male and female members of the family may go for gainful employment outside the home.

2. In some families the parents of the husband may live with his wife and children, while in some others, members of the wife’s family may be living with the couple and their children. With both husband and wife going outside the home for gainful employment and with the absence or limited availability of child care facilities, presence of kin members to look after the home and children comes handy for the smooth functioning of the household. Those working couples who prefer to live in nuclear family and who fear or resist interference from kin members, try to organise their household with professional help from outside the family (like cook, maid servants, crèches).

3. Aged parents, who once used to look towards their eldest son or other sons for support in old age, are now adjusting themselves to the new demands of family life by making economic provisions for their old age. Even within a city parents and married sons may reside separately.

4. Girls are now prepared to support their parent or parents in old age. Legal provisions have made to ensure that dependent old parents are looked after by daughter if she is self-recognised and accepted today in many nuclear households in the cities.

5. The 1991 census data has revealed an important trend, though nuclearization of the family has been dominant phenomenon the extent of joint living is also increasing especially in urban areas.

6. The old structure of authority and value have been challenged. The growing individualism questions the legitimacy of the age old hierarchical authority. This has minimised the importance of mutual respect, love and affection among family members.

7. Penetration of consumerist culture has aggravated the situation further, to a situation of generation gap, many of the aged feel frustrated, defected and neglected in society.

8. Young men feel a sense of identity crisis as emotional bondage decreases, leading them to the path of alcoholism and drug addiction.