COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PARENTS’ ANSWERS

Mrs Puja Mann Verma and Mr Rajesh Shetty, Both the

parents lived with less family members growing up and their
family is extremely important to both of them, their career
choice was not influenced by their parents and they are
currently who they are due to their own decisions, both the
parents grew up in a supporting family where they could talk
about any topics openly and freely as well as both their
grandparents continued living with the family members where
they were taken care of instead of being sent to a retirement
house . However there were some differences in their family
life such as , Mrs Puja Mann Verma grew up with extremely
permissive parents whom she could get into any discussion
with whereas Mr Rajesh Shetty had a bit of authoritative
parents, where talking back was considered to be rude. There
were specific roles for specific family members in Mr Rajesh
Shetty’s family but that was not the matter in Mrs puja Mann
Verma’s family and she clearly stated that there were no
specific roles for specific members of the family and they used
to divide different works occasionally. To Conclude There
were several similarities in both the parents' answers,such as
the open mindedness and the family support they received as
well as the differences, like the way they were brought up and
their parents style of parenting.
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE GRANDPARENTS’
ANSWERS

Mrs Kiran Mann and Mr Jagmohan Sachdev, For both of them

their families are very important and they care a lot about their
families and both of them were greatly affected by some kind
of war in history and both of their parents were permissive in
some kind of way, for both of them no such family value was
taught to them that they disagreed with however there were
differences in the families as well such as, Mrs Kiran Mann’s
Family was smaller when compared to Mr Jagmohan
Sachdev her family contained a total of 8 members where in
Mr Jagmohan Sachdev’s family there were 30 people, In Mrs
Kiran Mann’s family everyone was treated equally and had no
specific task allotted whereas in Mr Jagmohan Sachdev’s
family their Father was deemed most important as he earned
for the family and considered honesty as most valuable value
taught to him, and in his family there were some topics that
could not be discussed openly and there were differences in
treatment towards Men and Women, and in Mrs Kiran Mann’s
family anything could be discussed whereas on the other
hand in Mr Jagmohan Sachdev’s family they could only
discuss about a few topics and also only when allowed or
asked for, so In conclusion in these 2 families they had more
differences in their way of living than similarities and both the
families lived very differently and also experienced a lot of
different things and situations in their family lives.
COMPARISON BETWEEN PARENTS’ AND
GRANDPARENTS’ ANSWERS

The scope of the answers between these people was vast, to

say the least. One surprising similarity remains the fact that
their families did not influence their decisions, including choice
of study. Also, all the families were relatively close-knit;
grandparents would often continue to live in the same house.
However, there are certain differences between the values
taught by the families - while Mr Jagmohan and Mr Rajesh
were taught to value honesty, Mrs Kiran and Mrs Puja were
taught to have respect and value their families. All families,
except Mr Jagmohan’s family, could openly discuss all kinds
of topics. Moreover, while the grandparents lived in huge
families, the parents lived in nuclear families. Mr Rajesh’s
parents were the only ones out of these families that were
authoritative. While Mrs Kiran and Mr Jagmohan said that
they agreed with all the values taught to them, Mrs Puja
stated that there were some values she didn’t agree with,
such as not being allowed to ask questions regarding her
parents’ decisions. Mr Jagmohan and Mr Rajesh’s families
had a set hierarchy, with their fathers being the earners and
their mothers being the caretakers of the house and the
family. However, Mrs Kiran and Mrs Puja’s families did not
have specific roles of any kind for specific members of the
family. Mr Jagmohan was the only one who mentioned that
discrimination in terms of the treatment of girls and boys in the
family was prevalent. In short, the answers given by these
people do determine a considerable difference in family life
across generations, and how the importance of family has
changed significantly over time.

DEVELOPMENT OF SUB QUESTIONS

After these interviews, we have learnt a lot about the

generational changes of the importance of family, not only
between grandparents and parents, but also our own
generation. As for family values, many families pass down the
same values they were taught to the children, such as
honesty and respect. Parents today are much more
permissive than 3 generations ago, and we are allowed to go
into discussion with our parents when we need to
communicate our opinions or thoughts. Gender disparities are
also (almost) non-existent. Moreover, most of our families do
not have specific roles for members. Similar to the parents’
generation, smaller families compared to our grandparents’
generation live together now. The change in the importance of
families is arguable - while some may say it hasn’t changed to
this day, some claim the importance has changed greatly. The
range to which the importance of family remains varies with
every teenager; some of us are still very close with our family
members, meanwhile others are more distant. Lastly, while
the families of these interviewees didn’t influence their
decisions, the families of our generation have had a
considerable influence on decisions such as our choice of
university/college or study, however, many teenagers today
have much more freedom in decisions such as these. All in
all, families today are overall more closely knit as teens are
allowed to discuss with their parents, and the importance
differs in every family in India.