A nurturing family is critical for the healthy development of a child. Loving families can make a child feel safe, secure, loved, and help promote their self-esteem and well-being. It can also help a child become more socially competent and have better communication skills than a child who does not feel these family connections. Parents who are interact in children’s activities, like outdoor games or reading books together can to lead to a more social child. Children who engage in play activities with their parents jump right into games when they start school and show more independent behavior in those situations. Having their parents show an interest in their activities develops a strong sense of self in the child. http://www.hfrp.org/about-hfrp/staff/heather-b.-weiss November 8, 2014
Today, most families fall into one of two types. The first is a Nuclear Family or a family group consisting of a mother and a father and their children and is the type of family structure most commonly preferred. The second most common form is the Blended Family, or the family created by remarriage including step siblings and parents. Finally, all the family relations you have past your nuclear or blended family are called an Extended Family (cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents and so on).
http://worldfamilymap.org/2013/articles/world-family-indicators/family-structure November 8, 2014
I grew up in a Nuclear Family structure. My parents never divorced or remarried. My family was a very strict and structured family type. Family core values were very much enforced yet affection was not something given. In many ways having a family who stayed together taught me the importance of the family bond and gave me a strong connection to my brothers. It also taught me to never give up no matter how hard or bad it may get. To this day, I am not sure if that was such a good thing. I had to witness my mother staying in a horrible marriage and feeling as if she wasted her life living for everyone else. I feel I was affected and fell into the same.