Having a strong and supportive family unit is an essential part of human development. Even animals value the benefits they get from a family type atmosphere. Humans, especially, need to maintain healthy family relationships to enhance their emotional growth. Typically, the family relationship is viewed as the nuclear family.
The immediate biologically related members of a family are the mother, the father, and the children. The conventional family unit can extend to relatives, with some families obviously building stronger, deeper ties than others. Regardless of the depth of the family relationship, here are four reasons why it is important to foster these relationships.
Value development
Almost everyone can associate family with the concept of role models and with the development of a moral compass. Children begin to watch what adults do from a very early age. Watching and observing the people that become part of their world, establishes their sense of right and wrong. As children grow older, the number of people whose behavior they witness also grows.
A strong set of family values, built on any number of family relationships, can provide children with a firm foundation and a good sense of moral character. Establishing these values can become even more important for single mothers, who should follow a sound moral compass. As adults mature, their sense of morality usually grows likewise.
Personal well being and emotional growth
Family members contribute to each other’s emotional well-being. When the world turns harsh, many people realize the love and understanding of their family is the most important thing in the world. Many theories place a great deal of emphasis on the standard two parent and child family structure, but there have been numerous studies that seem to indicate it isn’t always about the formality of structure.
Developing a sense of personal self-worth and positive emotional growth is critical for children, as well as adults. However, this growth can come from a number of the attributes associated with all types of family structures. The primary premise is that having a family relationship, even if it is with a secondary group of people viewed as family, is essential to human emotional growth.
Responsibility
The core of the family unit has a number of inherent responsibilities. As each member of the family takes care of their individual duties, the family benefits from it and it gets stronger. A strong family structure teaches the importance of responsibility, and fulfilling obligations and duties which benefits everyone.
Children keenly watch how adult members of the family unit meet their responsibilities. Molding a family relationship structure that has a foundation in upholding commitments helps to build a responsible person. People continue to develop a good sense of being responsible all through their life, but the foundation can only be laid within the family unit.
Empathy and compassion
One of the most difficult things that people try to overcome is a sense of emotional empathy for others. Families make for an excellent environment for developing the all-important personality trait of emotional intimacy. When children and adults are exposed to an empathetic and compassionate family atmosphere, they learn to foster emotions that are more intimate.
When there are strong and intimate family ties, the fear of emotional intimacy is reduced, or eliminated altogether. An open, healthy family setting helps to reduce any inherent fear of emotional intimacy. Humans learn their emotions from their family environment. Children can develop a true sense of emotional empathy by observing others in their family. When it comes to learning to be compassionate about others, the roots of empathy start at the family level.
It is essential to the development of children and the growth of stable adults to maintain healthy family relationships. A family environment that fosters a healthy sense of self, built around strong values, naturally fosters an air of healthy responsibility. When people have these three core principles nurtured by positive family relationships their ability to be empathetically compassionate to all people can easily blossom
