SOC 213 - Families is important

Families are important to individuals and society Student: Professor: Course title: Date: Families are important to individuals and society A family, in essence, mirrors the society in itself. The family is very important as it offers the building blocks for an individual. Healthy people in healthy families reinforce a healthy society and a healthy nation. A family is basically a group of persons who live together because of co-residence, affinity or consanguinity. The general depiction of an archetypal family is one that comprises children, their mother, and their father. This paper provides a detailed discussion of why families are important not only to individuals, but also to the society. The family is of great importance to both the society and to individuals. A family is generally the basic unit of society and is significant to communities and individuals. A family consists of persons who care about each other. Every family member receives and gives support and love to the other members. Members of a family reach out to each other and share sad times as well as happy times. Family members talk and listen to each other. They also share concerns, thoughts, and even ideas (Hochschild, 2016). In addition, family members share sorrow and fun, and help in healing each other’s hurts. The family’s role within the society is of major importance given that the family is really the transmitting unit of the values of a culture for future generations. Whenever a child learns the proper ways of behaving and handling himself or herself at home, then this child would have a higher likelihood of contributing effectively to society and have a productive and contented life. A family that fails to pass down those values does a disservice to the society (Timmermann, 2015). Families provide their members with a vital support system throughout life, not only during childhood. Families also provide the society with a structure for passing along the values of a culture from generation to generation. These two roles are of major importance for a culture to sustain consistency as years go by (Roche, 2016). For any family to survive and flourish, its members should take part in both unpaid and paid work. Unpaid work refers to the work that is involved in caring for members of the family, doing laundry work, or preparing meals, while paid work is used in providing money for various things like food, clothing, rent, utilities, as well as other life necessities. Even though there are some cultural variances, a family’s main role within the society is to promote an environment in which children learn values, morals and skills. A family provides initial socialization for the child that shapes the child’s behaviours, values, attitudes and self-esteem. A family creates stability and structure in the lives of its members. In the family unit, children get to learn about routines, rituals and structure. Weekend outings, family meals and holiday traditions are some of the traditions that many families usually engage in. In addition, families provide an environment of accountability, in which members of the family get to learn about the consequences and the rewards which are as a result of disobeying or following informal and formal rules in the house (Vogt, 2012). Families are the most significant social unit of the society. Roberts (2016) pointed out that the family is more than just the societal unit. This is because it is also the basic all-around fun and friendship unit, the basic communication unit, basic child-raising unit, and basic sexual unit. The family unit – mainly a woman and a man who live together peacefully and harmoniously – is the basic unit or organization of any given society. Unlike any other relationship, this relationship provides stability in an intellectual, emotional, social and sexual way (Roberts, 2016). The society will be strong whenever families are strong, and societies start breaking down when families are weak. The family is the foundation for moral, intellectual, social, emotional and even physical development. Family members who are older and mature teach the younger family members vital skills such as how to differentiate between wrong and right and how to get along with others. One of the most tragic events in the life of a child occurs when the child’s parents are not able to provide the support structure (Selimian, 2011). In most instances, other members of the family can fill in the gaps and help in bringing up the youngsters, which still emphasizes the family structure. Even so, in the heart-rending and terrible cases, a government agency steps in and takes custody of the child to ensure that the child does not actually undergo the horrors of neglect. During such situations, the family is considered to have failed the individual. In the modern epoch of today, the idea of family is somehow blurred. A lot of couples who are practically tangled in arguments all the time are not able to find a proper way of solving issues and problems that they end up getting separated or divorced consensually. In such a scenario, it is the children who face the consequences; the children are blameless and get tied up of making decisions regarding whether to stay with the mother or father (Hochschild, 2016). How a person stands within a society is to a great extent because of the family which stands behind that particular individual. In essence, the family is significant within the society as it serves as the core basis of a person’s personal growth, individuality and character. The personality, beliefs and values of a person are entrenched in the family that he or she is surrounded with. Besides giving identity to a person, the family serves as the first school that a person attends to and the father and mother serve as the first teachers the children get to come across. Moreover, through the family, a person gets to learn the crucial values of understanding, love, humility and respect. As such, a family is vital to a society (Selimian, 2011). Generally, many people work very hard every day because of their families. The family is a person’s most intimate social environment. It is the place in which parents begin the essential processes of socializing their child and educating them about how to survive and prosper in this world. A person’s values for instance commitment, understanding, care and patience which were instilled in that person by his or her family, distinguishes that person from other people (Hochschild, 2016). If a person is a successful individual – not successful financially – then this underlies the values which th...