Like any other system that runs globally, the joint family also comes with its pros and cons. Now, if you live in a Joint family, you’ll prefer a nuclear family instead, but believe me, that’s no treat either. Well maybe, but that’s not for me to decide,
In this blog, we’ll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of joint family so you can decide if it’s the right place for you to stay in.
Joint families are one of the most important parts of many subcontinental cultures, and they have been going on for centuries. In India, a joint family consists of the whole parental family tree that involves grandparents, uncles, aunts, and their children.
Here are some merits and demerits of living in a joint family.
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10 Major Advantages of Joint Family in India
1. A child is Never Lonely.
Living in a joint family can be pretty fun for a child. Usually, he is surrounded by his age fellows, mostly his cousins. So you never have to worry about whether he is in good company or not.
2. Learning the concept of sharing
Living in the dynamics of a joint family can help you understand the joy of sharing. And by sharing, I am not just talking about materialistic things. It means sharing all the happiness and woes that life brings with itself.
It’s only by living with people you’ll understand that sharing happiness doubles it, and sharing a problem mostly shrink it, or with the emotional support added you’ll be able to face that issue being more strong than ever.
3. Learn to respect others opinions
Living in a joint family builds up a tolerance to a different set of views and personalities. It may seem a little overwhelming while living in that family circle, but believe me, it helps a lot when you face the outside world and take up the new life challenges.
I consider this one of the greatest advantages of living in a joint family: you’ll learn to respect others‘ opinions and haggle your way around it without getting anyone hurt. And this type of people skills will help your life much easier with the people outside your family, making you socially adept.
4. Education beyond books
As a part of a nuclear family, the only elders you’ll have to look up to will be your parents. But in a joint family, you’ll get a lot of role models with a variety of expertise in different areas. Let me give you a for instance,
What if you come home with a school project and your mom or dad is too busy to help you out, you’ll have your aunts, uncles, and cousins to fill that void and get that task done. You’ll learn a lot of new things from your grandparents as well.
5. Learn to care and love and share
Living in a joint family has its ups and downs but the thing I loved the most is learning to care, shower, love, and share. It’s the most characteristic of a human’s personality because that’s what we live upon and rely on at the end of the day.
6. Feeling of togetherness
It’s really easy to get the money part of life hit you while living in a nuclear family. But there is no chance for you to feel lonely in a joint family because there is always someone for you to share your ups and downs in life.
You’ll get everything you have been looking for If it’s either a good listener or advice. The feeling of togetherness in a joint family is what bachelors miss the most when they move out for college or jobs. It always gives you something calm to come home to.
7. Shared chores
Something to look forward to the cost in the joint family is the system on which it runs. You’ll get everything by just playing the minimal part. For example, since there are many family members, the chores just split out and get done in no time.
If you have ever experienced living in a nuclear family, you’ll probably experience that nothing gets done by itself unless you have help, even if it’s overwhelming.
And it’s fine until one day you aren’t feeling well and the whole system falls apart one day. Now in a joint family, there is no such thing. You’ll always be taken care of, especially if you are sick.
8. Less financial stress or burden of responsibilities
Given the world’s economic condition, it’s hard to live a stress-free life if you are the sole provider of your family.
But if you live in a joint family, all the financial burdens are split up among the members, making life so much easier.
9. Quality family time
Living in this world of constant chaos, we have strict schedules to survive. And after a day of hard work is over, you need to have someplace or someone to make you feel supported and human again.
This kind of thing is usually hard to find If you live alone. In a joint family you’ll get to spend quality family time to rewind and refresh for the next day.
10 Inheriting property
Inheriting the property of your grandparents is one of the most cherished elements of living in a joint family member, well, that for some people.
I inherited a copious amount of blood pressure, anger issues, and diabetes from them. You may be lucky to get a few lands, and it’s still something to look forward to.
10 Disadvantages of Joint Family in India
1. Helicopter parenting
Yup, it’s exactly what you think it is. You’ll get minimal to zero privacy. Everyone will be observing your behavior unconsciously. So, if you want to take some time off from the world, cry or meditate, better lock those doors.
Even so, if you do that right after 5 minutes, someone will start to banging that door like crazy to see if you are okay. You’ll rarely get alone time for yourself.
2. Bill becomes a law
You might have studied this process in your social sciences or political subjects. It’s quite boring I know, but if you are living in a joint family, you’ll get to experience it. It doesn’t sound fun, does it?
Even the minor decisions have to run through the entire generation living under the same roof. And even if it seems like a voting system, haha, No, it’s just a clever ruse to keep you distracted, and the final word is always the one suitable for the eldest of the family member or the most democratic person.
3. Financial responsibility slash differences
Now the financial burdens can be an issue in the joint family. Most of the time it’s like going out on dinner with friends, and when it comes to paying the bill, all of them split it equally.
Even if you ordered the small sandwich to save money, you’ll need to pay more than what you ate. I hope it’s clear that you’ll be paying for things that you barely use. It might cause some tension between the family members.
4. Interference in living standards and parenting
This point is just a different angle to look at the problem above. You’ll face a lot of criticism if you are a new mother on the way you live or treat your child. In times like these, joint family members come up with a lot of myths.
They do mean well, but sometimes it’s exhausting debusting every single myth.
You won’t be able to discipline your child because their grandparents might think you are being too harsh on them and stuff like that.
5. Games of Stove
Here’s the fun part: in most Indian daily soaps, we get to see Saas bahu fighting on every silly thing. The one thing that they ignored is what to cook for dinner. And that’s what you should be showing with a proper solution because even with a family of two, there is always a clash about what to eat.
Now in a joint family, there are more than two people obviously, and they can’t all have dinner of their liking every single day. That’s where the game of stove begins.
6. Less modern approach
Given that in a joint family you might be living under a family house with your grandparents, most of the lifestyle is probably old fashion. Now that may bug a lot of people, but it’s something natural.
You can’t just make someone change their lifestyle, which they had for half of their life.
7. You might be the only responsible one.
Living under the same roof with many people might be mentally exhausting sometimes. I’ll explain this point with an example. As a child, let’s imagine that you had to share your room with your siblings.
Now all of you are responsible for the room’s tidiness, but some of them are just there to make a mess, not clean. If you are a carefree kind of person, it might be okay with you, but if you are someone like me who is on the verge of OCD, it might haunt you while sleeping in a messy room.
Keep that situation in mind that in the joint family, you might have some family members who aren’t as responsible as you are, which might create some issues.
The bottom line:
Even though after reading these disadvantages, you might be like it’s not worth the risk, all of these issues can be tackled with some proper management, a lot of care, and tolerance. It requires a good binding person or ahead and some responsible members of the society.
You might think that this seems kind of an ideal situation, but it’s not. The joint family system has run the Indian subcontinent for centuries, and until now it’s going great.
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