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Belonging to a family is one bond almost everyone in the world shares. The importance of family bonds has been portrayed in proverbs and saying by all nations. Here we say “East or west, home is best”, the English say “My home is my castle” and I‘m sure there are wise sayings like these in other languages. To my mind a family is definitely a fabulous phenomenon, it is really one of the nature’s masterpieces, it is a genius creation of humanity.
Families give us a sense of belonging and a sense of tradition, a feeling of having support and understanding. Families give us strength and purpose. Our families show us who we are. As one American expert who studies families says, “The things we need most deeply in our lives - love, communication, respect and good relationships - have their beginnings in the family.”
Families serve many functions. They provide a setting in which children can be born and reared. Families help educate their members. Parents teach their children values - what they think is important. They teach their children daily skills, such as how to ride a bicycle, how to wash up. They also teach them common practices and customs, such as respect for elders and celebrating holidays. But the most important job for a family is to give emotional support and security.
Many modern families live rather differently, and because of this some people think that the family unit is dying and society is being weakened. Many couples still get married, but others live together without getting married. A few years ago, couples living together usually got married when they wanted to start a family, but this happens less now. Another trend is for people to get married later in life and to have fewer children, so the size of the average family is shrinking.
Many families face lots of pressures, such as divorce problems, career demands and money worries. The number of families that are headed by only one person, usually the mother, increase every year. Many divorced men are required by law to help their wives support their children, but not all of them fulfill their responsibility.
Many families often have financial difficulties. An economic necessity makes many women work today. Another reason why women work is that they have a good education, they want to devote themselves to their favourite work and make a career, and they don’t want to be just housewives. As a result families have little time to spend together. They only see each other for a short time in the evening, and though the children are still considered important, they have to fit in with the lives of their parents. Many parents make an effort to spend quality time with their children, an hour or so each day when they give them their full attention. Sometimes it leads to misunderstanding in the family. But, anyway, I think, talk about generation gap has been exaggerated. The generation gap is a gap between the views of the younger generation of teenagers and the views of their parents. And this is as it should be. Every new generation is different from the one that preceded it. But if you are sensitive to each other's feelings you'll be able to avoid upsetting each other too badly and to find the way out. In happy families parents are frankly honest with their children without moralizing, and children in their turn learn how to encounter other people, how to form relationships among themselves.
It would be a mistake to think that happy, friendly families don’t have problems. But they are always ready to experiment and find the way out. They may even argue, so that problems can be resolved before they get too big. Members of strong families show each other affection and appreciation. Finally, when problems arise, strong families work together to solve them.
To finish with, I'd like to say that there are times in our lives, when everything seems to be going badly. We all have problems we can't cope with. We feel depressed and dispirited and suffer from acute anxiety and despair. We moan and groan and think we are losers and failures. A fatherly manly hug or a mother's loving embrace can really restore you from the ashes. Then I hear my Mom's favourite words: "You are a Fallible Human Being" and understand that even if the whole world turns its cold shoulder on me, there'll still be a family to turn to for love, compassion and understanding. And as every great masterpiece the family will remain in our soul forever.
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