Family Closeness in Decline: Causes & Effects - Essay Sample

Introduction

Family closeness has changed over the years, and family members are not close any longer as they used to be. According to my perspective, this change in family closeness has been brought about by various factors which make members of the family drift away from their families and hence, their close ties with their families become weaker. These factors include jealousy in the family, favouring of some members of the family, pride, rebellion and strife. All these factors have led to rejecting of all the close ties upon which a happy family is established. However, there are various ways that can be used to build a more stronger relationship in families, for instance supporting each other, giving everyone a voice by listening to each person's ideas, organize family meetings and establishing effective communication among members of the family

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Jealous in families has become a very common vice which makes closeness a nightmare. Jealousy is very common among siblings in families, and it is mostly because of insecurity, fear and low self-esteem. For instance, a sibling may have low self-esteem about how they look and becomes jealous of the other sibling whom they believe is more beautiful than they are, such sibling cannot be close, and they never want to be close to each other because one feels inferior to the other. Some parents have also chosen to side with some of their siblings, and they are always defending them and supporting their every move, this behaviour causes jealousy among the children and eventually hatred and lack of unity. Resentment may also emerge because some members feel that they have not achieved what other family members have achieved in life. Such members do not want to be associated with their relatives who have made greater things in life, and they opt to build a strong wall around themselves without any association with the family. Therefore jealous is extremely destructive to achieving family closeness, it has led to a lot of conflicts and disunity among members of many families and falling apart from many families.

Favouritism has led to falling apart of many families. Some members are given priorities and treated much way better than the rest of the other members. Favouritism led to conflicts and rebel between the less favoured and the favoured members because those who are not favoured tend to feel less close to the rest of the members. In today's family for instance, if we look at the grandparent's side, they seem to favour some of their grandchildren who they think are brilliant, smart in class and also the well-mannered ones and they always want these grandchildren around. This means that the relationship among the grandchildren cannot be healthy because they are not treated equally. It has also been clear that parents have developed parental favouritism among their children. This parental favouritism is the key to children rivalry and also affects the excellent relationship and closeness that the siblings should have. The members of a family who feel that they are not treated right tend to recoil from their families because they do feel unwanted, and they, therefore, prefer to keep of their family.

Pride has greatly affected relations in many families. Members of many families have opted to group themselves in terms of their social classes and the unity that was there among family members no longer exists. Members have grouped themselves, and some feel superior to the rest who are not of their social status. The members who have made it in families are always egocentric and chose pride instead of pulling the rest up to success. Such members cannot sit together and agree on what is best for their family but instead compete to be above the other. Selfish pride is always destructive to the closer aspect of the family because the family tends to be divided and lacks unity among the members.

However, there are various ways through which family could be brought together. One of these ways includes organizing of family get together meetings frequently. With the family of today family getting together and socializing and making deliberate decisions about how a family should function has become so rare. Holding these family meetings is a sure way of improving the family closeness because everyone feels involved in the making of family decisions. It is also in such a session that the members can share their struggles and achievements. For instance, my family organizes a family meeting every month which is attended by my extended family, these meetings have seen many of us grow to be very close to each other as we feel that we are one family due to the constant meetings

Effective communication among the members of the family is also another factor which can help the family get close to each other. There should be constant communication in the family and with this, each member is informed about the welfare of the other and also the issues that are affecting the family at that specific time. Communications build a closer relationship in the family because the members are connected to each other despite the distance, and they are also very open-minded to each other. Therefore communication is very significant in the closeness of any family. In my family, we have all taken communication very seriously, and we make sure that each member of the family can connect to the other effectively in one way or the other and these have made us be very close.

Support among the members of the family is a crucial factor in creating closeness in a family. Support includes giving financial support to one another, believing in each other's goals and also supporting each other in achieving what they believe. Therefore the family members feel close to one another as they think that they can turn to their family if any problem encounters them or if they need someone to encourage them in what they do. For instance, some of the family members are wealthier than others. They can help in educating the children whose parents are not well up in the family; this will help the children even to be closer with everyone in the family as they do not feel belittled

Conclusion

In conclusion, closeness in families has become a thing of the past. Families are no longer close as they used to be because of the factors that thrive among the family members, which eventually affects their closer ties. These factors range from jealousy, favouritism, pride and lack of communication in the family. All these factors have become a key to hatred among the members, and they drift away from each other. However, all hope is not lost as there are various ways which can be put in place to bring family closer gain. These factors may include organizing meetings in families, ensuring that there is effective communication among the members and also supporting each other. Close families tend to achieve greater things as they support each other in every aspect and they hence end up achieving more significant things in the family and among the members. Therefore every possible effort should be made to make sure that family remains close.