Family Institutions

Family institution is defined as a "social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction and procreation of children." (Farooq 1)

Many people see their family as a major support system, I know I do. From the time we were born we have relied on them for so many things like money, a belief system, and essentially the things that keep us alive like food, water and shelter. On many occasions children act just as the people do around them (most of the time being family). So what is right or wrong with your family? Many things that I see other families do for example, eating at the dinner table every night. One of my best friends doesn't do that nor have they ever. It's a strange thing to me because when I was in high school I was so use to coming home from a sports practice and sitting down with the whole family to eat and talk about how our days go, but when your family isn't home to do that I feel it's sad because I know she would rather do that than cook for herself and eat it in front of the TV.

As Keshav Kolanki explained in his article about families as a social institution (Kolanki 1) " the function of a family institution is to give formal and informal education to children, children have to go to school for formal education but informal education is given by the family institute." So yes we go to school to learn the basic reading writing and arithmetic, but overall your family is the one who really teaches a person how to act and respond to situations, which in my opinion is just as important as the other. If one doesn't know how to act how are they suppose to learn the basics?

Over many years the idea that "family" as an institution  has changed drastically whether we as a society want to believe it or not. Technology is a prime example, families didn't use to sit around a watch their phones and call it "socializing," but now that's all we do. Most times I find myself going over to a friends house to "hang out" and it ends up being us sitting on the couch consumed by our cell phone or the TV. Like I said before not many families I know sit at a dinner table every night. The pressures of being a kid have also changed. My dad remembers his high school classes to be very easy, and moving onto college wasn't a big thing, but now it's totally the opposite. In my high school career I was very driven to be at the top of the class, compete in sports, and also do extracurricular activities, and on top of that have a job.

So even though family should be the most important institution it's not anymore, many things have come in to play before it, and I think it's important that the idea of family as an institution should change.

http://www.studylecturenotes.com/basics-of-sociology/what-is-family-institution-meaning-definition-of-family-institution

 "Family as Social Institution." Family as Social Institution. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.