Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Family Bonding

My ten year old son came on a monday from school saying that he has got this project to prepare a family tree and he needed pictures of all the family members. That would be aunts, uncles, cousins and so on. We did have most of the pictures but a few were missing. We just had pictures which were too old and my son wanted recent photographs. He called up all of them and asked them to send their family photographs.

I thought this was such a good project. Children today are loosing touch with their own first cousins. Due to work all of them are scattered and in different places and moreover children are all in that stage of life where their holidays cannot be co-ordinated for a family reunion. I felt that it would have been such a wonderful thing if at least once a year we could all meet up for a family reunion !!

Family as we all know is the most basic unit in our society. If that structure is strong our children will definitely have a strong footing. They can surge ahead in life. I feel so blessed that my children have wonderful grand parents. They have grown up having them around and they have taught them invaluable things in life. Maybe they might not be able to discern it now but I know for sure it will definitely help them in their future.

I could sum up what each one has distinctly done when my son wrote in his worksheet to the question "what important values have you learnt from each one of your family member?" His answer was that he had learnt the importance of cleanliness, neatness and discipline from his mother ; truthfulness and keeping up promises from his father;morals from his grandmother and manners, courtesy from his grandfather. Well I was quite surprised by these answers. Children definitely learn so many different things from different family members. Though the basic values are the same children do identify each member with certain values that each person emphasises upon.

Well I hope family structure and values would withstand the test of time with our future generations and closer bonding happen with all family members. What is life if families are not together atleast if not physically but in spirit? This does not mean that we should just send mails or talk over the phone, but get togethers once in a while is a very pleasant event to happen. As it is joint family has become a thing of past. Life is too short and if as a family we cannot come together then when can we?