Introduction
Large families have several advantages and disadvantages over small families. Large families teach children how to be responsible by sharing duties. They also help the children to grow morally and socially as they interact with other siblings in the family. They also face financial difficulties and health problems. This paper is aimed at identifying the advantages and disadvantages of large families.
Advantages of Large Families.
Children in large families share duties and other responsibilities in the house and this helps in improving the family’s welfare. They also learn how to care for other people in the family and outside the family (Ostyn, 2009). This is an advantage to the children as they grow up knowing their strengths and weaknesses and they also have confidence in life thus they mature quickly. Children in large families know the meaning of being responsible. This is because they know how they can affect other people in the family if they are not responsible. This makes the children to grow morally since they don’t concentrate on personal issues but take care of the whole family and the children develop to be givers but not takers. Another advantage of large families is that children in large families enjoy regular intellectual arousal as they are surrounded by other children who they play and speak with (Ostyn, 2009). This interaction makes the children to be strong and also enhances their judgment skills.
A large family is always happy despite the problems in the family. This is because the family learns how to socialize. Children in large families always have memories of the fun they have shared. The hardships faced by large families are an advantage because they teach the families how to be fair and how to share with other people. The families also learn how to overcome differences and to forgive and forget. This is important as it helps in developing their moral standards thus making it easy for children from large families to fit in any group unlike children from small families who are self centered. Children from large families learn how to differentiate wants and needs since their parents have money to cater for their needs but not to satisfy them since the parents have no enough finances and time .Children learn how to work hard to fulfill their needs or they wait for the parents to fulfill their needs (Lamanna, &Riedmann, 2008).This is an advantage to the children as they learn how to be honesty and patient. Through the hard work children learn how to be independent and self starters. Children from small families may not grow up to be independent and to be self starters since parents provide everything for them. Children in large families appreciate variations in gender as they interact frequently thus the boys get to know girls more and girls get to know boys more. This helps the children to be responsible in life. Children in large families have many differences and the differences are important as the children learn how to handle the differences among themselves and this helps them to learn how to associate with different people. Thus the children become responsible and social while children from small families may not have such experiences hence they end up not knowing how to socialize or to handle challenges (Lamanna, &Riedmann, 2008).
Disadvantages of Large Families
Large families have several disadvantages. Large families have high living costs than small families. This is because large families have more expenses on education, clothes and food but in small families the expenses are small. In small families parents are able to fulfill the needs and wants of their children more easily while in large families it is difficulty to cater for children’s needs and wants. For example, in small families the parents are able to provide better education for their children while large families cannot afford to educate the children thus making the child and family to suffer (Cartwright, 2009). In small families parents provides the best support to the children since they have few children to look after while in large families the parents are not able to provide the best support for the children since they have many children to take care. The size of the family can also affect the health. This is mostly in mothers and children. Regular pregnancies can affect the mother and the children. Small families lead to good health and joy unlike large families where the health of the children and mother can be affected due to frequent pregnancies (Hernandez, 1995).
Conclusion
Large families have more advantages than small families since large families’ shape the children to be responsible when children share duties in the family. Children in large families learn to be independent unlike children in small families. Children in large families are hardworking as they have to work hard to get the needs the parents have not provided. Large families shape children morally and socially unlike small families. Large families have disadvantages like financial difficulties that make it difficulty for parents to educate and to cater for other needs
Reference
Cartwright, A. (2009).Parents and Family Planning Services. Aldine Transaction, page 38
Hernandez, D. (1995).America’s children: resources from family, government, and the economy. Russell Sage Foundation, page18
Lamanna,M.,&Riedmann,A.(2008).Marriages and Families: Making Choices in a Diverse Society.Edition10.Cengage Learning, page 237
Ostyn,M.(2009).A Sane Woman’s Guide to Raising a Large Family. Gibbs Smith, page 54
