Family

The family is the most important group to which most people ever belong. Most
people-but not all of us-are born to parents who have set up a home and are ready to
welcome children. The parents give the daily care necessary for young children and teach
them their first lesson in how to live with other people- to love, help and in time take
responsibility. In some families, such loving care is missing. This does not lessen the
importance of the family. But it makes a difference in how the children feel toward other
people.

There are many kinds of different families beside the father-mother-children family.
Some of the other kinds are families without children, families made up one parent and a
child or children. From middle age on, an increasing number of woman and man live alone
because they have lost their marriage partner. Some families seem to present more problems
than others for boy and girl growing up in them. It is well to remember that whenever two or
more people are living close together, adjustment are called for on the part of each person. In
the family, children as well as parents learn to give and take and to be considerate of one
another.

The many kinds of families make it difficult to define just what a family is. In the
United State, Canada and other industrialized countries, a common definition is a small group
of people related to one another by birth, adoption, or marriage, sharing a household, and
caring for one other. “ A group made up only a father, mother, and children is called a
nuclear family. The term comes from the word “nucleus” meaning a central, or basic part. It
has no connection with nuclear, or atomic, energy. It refers to the unit of parents and children,
among whom ties are strong and long lasting. We shall speak of this kind of family first.

The nuclear family lives in a single household, but it is usually part of a kinship web.
This web includes a parson close’s close relatives-parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles
cousins, nieces and nephew. In some families, aunts and uncles lose track of nieces and
nephew, and cousin my never meet. They my feel deprived of one parent, but they my also
accept the situation as the best that can be arranged.
Task 3

1. What is a family in general meaning?

2. What do parents give to children in family?
3. What other kinds of families are there except father-mother-children family?
4. What caused a woman or man lives alone?
5. What it is difficult to define kinds of foreign countries family?
6. What does family mean in industrialized countries?
7. What is nuclear family?
8. What does the word ’nuclear’ come from?
9. What does nuclear family refer to?
10. What does nuclear family include?