MY DEBATE AT DPS, DELHI ON September 30, 2008

Extended family is an asset to Indian society.
A very good morning to one and all. This is Shreya Gupta of Class-4 standing before you to humbly oppose the motion of today’s debate. i.e: The extended family is an asset to Indian society.

Well, before we dwell on the subject, let me quote the Webster dictionary, which defines family as "the basic unit in society traditionally consisting of two parents rearing their children". So where is the place for the others?

Let me also explain the extended family with an example. Shreya! Turn down the TV, Akshat has to study. Rashika! When will you come out of the bathroom, Priya has to take bath. Nonu! Don’t enter my room with shoes. O! My God! These unending instructions are enough to make anyone go mad, aren’t they? My opponents say that life in an extended family is interconnected with other family members. But at what price? When they get up, you get up. When they sleep, you sleep too.

The world we live in and the lives we lead have changed our necessities, priorities and assets. India being the cradle of ancient civilization had firmly believed in the extended family. But not now. I repeat, not now. Today’s generation has taken the initiative to start a nuclear family.

Today we cannot hide from the fact that parents and grown up children do not get along well and adult children want to make a house of their own as soon as they can afford to do so. And rightly so, because as they say absence makes the heart grows fonder.

Let me now enumerate some more advantages of a nuclear family. The major gain is the opportunity it gives to provide an identity of one’s own something we all crave for!

Moreover parents in a nuclear family can afford to spend enough time and money on the requirements of their children.

Also, in an extended family it is very difficult for a working woman to look after her own family and also that of her husband – where will she find time for herself?

In a nuclear family, we can be away from comparisons, emotional hurts, gossips, ego clashes, compromises and work priorities.

In this world of globalization nuclear family provides mobility and more financial freedom.

So in the end, I would like to sum up by saying that – extended family requires so much adjustment, patience and tolerance that it is not possible to enjoy living in it except when there is no option.