Today we celebrate three decades of the United Nations Organisation (UNO) having instituted the International Day for Families. The purpose of dedicating this day for families was to promote awareness of the issues that surround families as well as to highlight the importance of family and how it impacts our planet.
The family is a central element of every society and is a sustainable and stable home for all ages. It has always been the foundation from and upon which the moral fibre of children are built, nurtured and developed since no individual is born in a vacuum.
A child’s first contact with the world is family. Family means nobody gets forgotten or left behind. Like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one. The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other. Where family roots run deep, there is no reason for its members to fear the winds and storms of life.
Family is the basic unit and the foundation upon which society is built and sustained. Family is a link to the past and a bridge to our future. Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family, whatever you call it, whatever you are, you need one. As basic and essential building blocks of societies, families are the epicentre of social development. They bear the primary responsibility for the education and socialization of children. Change it is said is the only constant thing and this we find is also impacting on the nature and structure off the family.
The theme of UNO this year is “Demographic trends and families”. Demographic Trends can be both positive and negative depending on the specific context and circumstances. It is important for the families and the policy makers to be aware of these trends and their potential effects, and to work together to promote strong, healthy, and supportive family relationships. Demographic change is one of the most important mega-trends impacting our world and families worldwide. Demographic trends are mostly shaped by fertility and mortality patterns.
Since the beginning days of radio in the early 1930’s, mass media has been part of the home environment. As early as the 1950’s, Television began to take the centre-stage within the home-environment. TV sets replaced the fire-place as the centre of the family living space. It was the new hearth around which the family communed. TV was believed to revive domestic life in three ways: (a) to keep family at home and together (b) as a cure to marital problems and (c) as a remedy for problem children to keep them away from the streets and within the safe confines of their home.
As families began to purchase new sets with larger screens, colour and remote control devices, older sets were relinquished to the children and thus the multi- TV households were born. Family dinner where members conversed with regard to their day’s activity was now replaced with silence around the TV screen.
1990’ saw the growth of new screen media in the home: video games, computers, internet and home entertainment systems. Families no more ate or prayed together.
Family is the link between the individual and society. Changes in family structure are driven by social changes, and, conversely, drive social change. Overuse of technology can be the cause of anger and negative emotions between spouses, resulting in an un-tenable rift within a marriage. Although much is known about the impact of media on children, far less attention has been given to the impact of media on the family. More research needs to address the impact of media on the family, especially in today’s media savvy homes.
Internet addiction affects the emotional psychological and mental well-being of each family member which results n the breakdown within the family. Parenting in digital age has now become more challenging than ever before
From the early 1970’s marriage and child bearing began to be postponed and cohabitant and non-marital child bearing started to increase. Globally there is a decrease in the number of children per household between 2000–2030. A larger number of couples without children and singletons in mega cities are looking for greater convenience and access to amenities and careers in urban areas.
The small family households are therefore creating a boom in apartments which can easily be tailored to one or two inhabitants. Companies, as a result of this smaller home phenomenon will see demand increase for products such as small appliances, flat pack furniture, foldable goods and other products that cater to small rooms. Voluntary childlessness is increasingly common, and developments in reproductive technology have opened options for those
who want to have children outside of a more traditional arrangement.
Unemployment, out of wedlock children, family breakdown, Technology, immigration and the gender revolution – what are these trends doing to the traditional family model? As mobility increases, family members are highly geographically separated, but more connected via mobile technologies. The adaption of women to their new role in traditionally male activities in the public sphere and the acceptance of their roles as equal or primary earners have been faster than the adaption of men to traditional female roles as care providers. High rates of divorce, single parenthood, and non-marital co-habitation are forcing people world over to re-examine their definition of family. This evolving social reality requires public policy to evolve as well.
Under any system of society – the family holds the future in its bosom. The choices we make today create the future that we are dreaming of. Families boost our confidence and make us feel loved.
They are the pillars of our strength who never fail and instead keep us morally and emotionally strong so we become better people/citizens.
(The writer is a social scientist and a senior practicing criminal lawyer).