Attitudes about family in the target culture
Family is an integral part of Indian culture. From an early age, one is taught the importance of respecting one's family and that one should prioritize family before all else.
Indian parents can tend to be strict with certain things such as education and money. There is an implicit tradition of not questioning your parents' wishes since it is considered to be disrespectful. This tends to benefit but also hurt people. The benefits of the immense respect vis a vis family is that it establishes an unconditional sense of loyalty and trust within families. It is common for parents to stay with their children even after the children get married so that they can be taken care of in their old age. This can obviously have its drawbacks as well since it could cause disagreements and tension on certain issues.
It is also common to live in 'joint' families. A joint family is one in which one's grandparents, along with their brothers and sisters, all of their children (and so on) live together. This can be lovely because children get to know their cousins/extended family very well, but as mentioned above, this can also lead to some serious family drama!
Other advantages of the strong sense of family are the sense of community that is instilled in people from a young age. There is an emphasis on sharing with others and treating guests like family -- I am grateful for this after having been on the receiving end of this hospitality several times at friends' houses.
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