[Lt_Apple]

I share the same feelings, family is the greatest invention of mankind after GOD, joint family is the best solution for most of the social problems, I am in favor of a limited version of the joint family where the couple lives with their parents and childrens, not necessarily with the families of their siblings. Humans needs help when they are young and when they are old(second childhood) in between they can help others. In the west the young children are well taken care off but the older ones are left in a miserably position, this is what I prefer to call as animal models as manifested from the Lion to the birds. In India we are also moving from our traditional, staying with our parents to the nuclear family model. The most striking reason is the migration factor, when all the kids are scattered across the globe where would the parents be, in the era of free trade on every thing but for labor(human) movement. Even within India when people move from villages to cities the same problems persists but it is driven more by economic factors. Last but the most important is the attitudes of the women in India, whether it is the MIL or DIL role that they play and reluctance on all of us to evolve our ways of achieving a happy family without undue compromises on career etc.