Joint Family – Pros,Cons and Reasons of Failure

Joint Family

Joint Family system is the base of civilisation. Joint family as per my knowledge took birth in great land of INDIA. which is most important base of Hindu Civilization.

Where all sons and daughters of parents stay together under one roof. And then children’s children also under one roof. Till today also in Metro cities like Mumbai Joint family of 38 members are seen living together in one roof. In villages you can see joint families with more numbers also.

Basically two western terms never became part of Hindu civilization

1. Old Age house.
2. Divorce or Step Mom.

Yes there was no concept of Old Age house in Hindu Civilization. In fact it promoted ‘Shradh’: Post death rituals. which i consider it as Shradha(Belief). where you dont forget the dead family member in one day. There are first 12 day rituals, then monthly and then yearly. so that your basic design shouldn’t become Mean. where you forget your dear ones after their death.

So forgetting your old family members is not at all a question.  Infact children consider their good luck , that they get a chance to serve their grand parents. They feel privileged that they got opportunity  to do service of their grandparents. Hence the family size keeps on increasing as old members are treated so well in house and new ones takes birth.

Also as i mentioned there is no definition of steph mother in this system. This is not at all to hurt any one’s sentiments. But it teaches to be happy and content with one partner. which leads to good hygenie and healthy life.

Benefits of Joint family

Now one blog will be very short to write down all benefits of  JOINT FAMILY SYSTEM

But let us see some of them which matters.

Team Game: You learn how to play for team. You learn how to live for the team. Here only one sows seeds of patriotism. You learn how to live for the dignity . how to help weaker family members, for the overall development.  The Head of the family distributes the work among all children. And gets the work executed.

Equal Economy:This is the place where you see how Equal economy in taught. The stronger one is taught to follow unwritten rule, to take responsibility of those who are weak

Emotional Bond: Today we see the west celebrates Fathers day, Mothers day etc. because they live in nuclear family. wereas here you automatically have that Bond..and which is not fake or forced.

Sense of Emotional & Physical Security: when you always have some sibling or parents or grandparents with you, you always have some one to share your heart. You don’t rely on outsiders. Also no trespassing is dared ,as rarely home is empty.

Life lessons: We have learned ‘ Smart people learn from other’s mistakes’. Hence wile living in joint family , you get so many experiences , that also wile observing others. Hence in any bad situation we dont panic. Because we have almost lived every situation.
I guess this will go on and on..

But let us now also see negative points of joint family..Though I feel just because we should try to see both the sides of a coin, I am mentioning the other side.

But personally I feel there are very few genuine negative points.

Privacy: People who are less financially strong face this probl em. As members are more and space is less. This creates suffocation as far as privacy is concerned.

Decision Making: In joint family , normally younger ones are not allowed to major decision. But this generally depends on individual nature. In many families there is sufficient democracy.

Invisible Competition : In joint family , as we live together , at all levels , unnecessary competition and comparison is created. Which if healthy is good, but at times it gets bad. And creates inferiority among other members.

Role distribution & Execution : Head of the family decentralises all the Responsibilities in various departmens from Kitchen to laundry and income to expenses. But if execution is not done  properly or sense of biased attitude of head of family is felt by some members of family then it becomes difficult to run the house.

But if you ask me the biggest reason of problems in joint family system is ‘Same Proffession’

Yes if all are in different bussinness or profession there will be very less scope of differences . 

Overall there is no concept in the world which is flawless but we see which has more benifits .

Whatever I have written is as per my personal study on joint families..If you have anything to ask you can always write to me.

Thanks