The concept of family can be very different depending on who describes it. But for children, the family is the place where they must be safe, with people who care for them, protect them and make them feel at their place in the world. On an emotional level, the family can be formed by people outside the blood union, special friends and people who make up the circle of greatest trust.
However, at a theoretical level, the family is made up of people who share blood ties, emotional ties and with whom they live. There are different roles in a family., roles occupied by the different people who compose it. Each of them is essential for the others, because the family has certain functions that are those that provide well-being and a good general coexistence.
What are the functions of the family
Regardless of the union of the people that make up a family, there are rules and duties that each one must fulfill within the functions of the family. In the history of mankind families have been the most important form of structure within society, because values and culture are shared within the family nucleus.
Each member has a fundamental role that is worth knowing, since in today's society affective ties are increasingly broken. Something that not many decades ago was unthinkable, because the value of the family was fundamental and was above all things. What has changed? Perhaps the current way of life, the loss of values, the new technologies that prevent people from sharing moments at home. There are many and very diverse factors that make family ties break easily today.
So that this does not happen, it is very important to educate children from an early age to respect the family and above all, teach them what their role and function is within it. The functions of the family are::
- The economy: Adults are the ones who must provide financial resources to the family, to be able to meet expenses and provide stability to the smallest members. It is the parents who have to work to cover the basic needs of the house. And in the future, all members must collaborate financially so that the family is prosperous.
- affective function: Feeling loved by the people you live with is fundamental. To develop a healthy personality and establish emotional relationships with people outside the family. This is what the affective function in the family consists of, which depends on all the members.
- love and care: Traditionally, it is the mother who takes care of the children and who is responsible for making them feel loved in their family environment. However, nowadays parents assume their role of love and care for the other members of the family.
- The game: The family also consists of leisure time. In teaching children to relate to their peers and learn to function in society.
- The educational function: Something that the law also establishes is that families have the obligation to provide educational resources to their children. Schooling is compulsory because the future of children depends on it.
- The identification: Children have to discover themselves, develop their own personality and identify themselves as individual beings. This is a family function that falls to the parents. That they should help their children to grow, develop and mature to be fully functional beings.
- The cultural or spiritualWhat today is known as educate in values, teach children what work, solidarity, empathy, family, love, forgiveness, respect or tolerance are.
All functions are essential, because the development of children depends on the elders fulfilling their obligations. Children come into the world without knowing and they have to learn and discover everything little by little. For this they are the people who make up the most important nucleus, the family.