Sources of Family Income and Expenditure

Family Income

Quality life in the family is the symbol of good civilization. All families do not have same type of life style. Some have very high standard of living whereas some have low. It is essential to make the size of family small and increase family income for attaining quality life.

Family income plays a significant role in making the family qualitative. The fact that the larger the sizes of the family, the greater are the needs of the family is an accepted one. That is why, the family income and expenditures are related with happiness and prosperity of the family. Income is the fundamental means for fulfilling the needs and wants of the family. Active labor forces of a family are regarded as sources of income for the family. If these members are efficient, active and productive, income of the family increases. Therefore, active labor forces or productive members of the family should be motivated toward the income generating activities. Moreover, level of education and mental as well as physical capacity of family members always determine their income.

Family Expenditure

The matter of expenditure for family welfare depends on income. Daily needs can be easily fulfilled and additional needs and wants can also be met with. The balance between the income and expenditure of the family can only be maintained when the expenditure does not exceed the income.

Each family makes and estimated budget consciously or unconsciously for expenditure. Estimated budget is prepared to keep balance between expenditure and income. The family usually spends the money that has been set aside for the expenditure. Generally, an estimated detail of expenditures to be incurred in the family is prepared due to the following reasons:

• To calculate the actual amount of income and expenditure during a whole year.
• To maintain balance between income and expenditure by determining priority of expenditures in accordance with the sources of income.
• To save some amount of income for the providence, after fulfilling the needs that have been given priority.

In this way, to maintain the balance between income and expenditures, a family budget should be prepared. Expenditures should be in accordance with the income of the family. But, in many families, family income is not sufficient even to meet the everyday needs.

Cycle of Family Life

Completion of the family cycle and the growth of family are very sensitive matters of family life education. Family life begins when a person enters the conjugal life. Each couple has different responsibilities in their respective families. The structure, growth and development are the important issues related to family life education.

The family life cycle consists of the following stages:

1. Founding Stage: The first stage of marital life is founding stage. The period from the day of marriage to the day of having first baby is called starting or primary stage. During this stage, there is love, affection, co-operation, understanding and mutual faith between the couple.
2. Expanding Stage: Expanding stage begins after the birth of the first baby. This is the stage when couples give birth to the child, take care of it by breastfeeding, immunizing and providing extra food if required. This stage lasts until the child starts going to school.
3. Schooling Stage: In this stage, the couple sends the child to school, providing it with different training and developing it psychologically. During this stage, parents teach their child how to read and write, encourage the child to assist them in their daily activities and help them to extend the hands of the relationship with their friends.
4. Launching Stage: This stage begins when parents start to provide the skill oriented trainings, in order to get better job opportunities. This stage lasts until their children get married and start to spend their own conjugal life.
5. Retirement Stage: This stage begins when children get married and reach the stage of maturation. Parents get rid of their responsibilities towards their children and start to lead such a life that is completely tension free. They get redemption from family burdens. Sometimes, there arises conflict and misunderstanding between the parents and young generation due to ageing.

Objectives and Importance of Family Life Education

Objectives of family life education
In simple terms, family life education is an educational process that helps in developing physical, social, emotional and moral character of people in relation to the sociocultural aspects of the society. Family life education has flowing major objectives.

• To help married couples to have fewer number of children.
• To help the youth in learning how to deal with physical, emotional and social changes faced in the process of growing up.
• To provide counseling services to the couples planning to have children.
• To help the youth in learning how to establish and maintain satisfying relationships with members of the family, with friends and other whom they come into contact with.
• To help in the protection and promotion of child and maternal health.
• To create favorable environment for population control programmes.
• To mobilize youths to spread population education among the people of community.

Importance of family life education
The importance of family life education is summed up in the following points:

• Family life education helps the young people to solve family problems. 
• It helps the youth in their growing stage to know about the social, emotional and physical changes that take place in this stage.
• It develops the knowledge about different roles, function and maintenance of family.
• It provides knowledge about maintaining good relationship among the members of the family and other people of the society. It helps to make the family happy and prosperous.
• It develops the knowledge, values and the skills, which are necessary for adulthood, marriage and parenthood as well as for participation in community life.
• It helps to deal with the changes in the adolescents' lives in their society.
• It helps them to make wise decision and communicate effectively with others about all matters concerning the social behavior. It makes people aware that they are becoming sexually mature and leads them to understand the sex attitudes and behaviors.

Family life education

Family life is a very broad concept. It is quite complex as well, full of different responsibilities and duties of the family members, the probable conflicts and crises that arise in the family, generational conflict and many other matters related to family. If the members of the family do not know their duties and responsibilities, then the family condition may turn toward degradation and instead of love, affection and care, violence can be caused. Therefore, the knowledge about various aspects of family life is a must. Family life education is an educational programme designed to assist young generations in their physical, social, emotional and moral development to make them able to cope with temporal changes like adolescence, puberty and ageing, with an objective of living a better family life. In other words, it is a training to young people for being successful parents in the future and to perform their designated roles effectively. It is also taken as protection, reservation and extension of the family.

Family life education is not an education about physiology of reproduction, anatomy and sexuality or an education to prepare successful family members alone; rather it is an amalgam of all these. The major target group of family life education is young generation because on the one hand, they are the future heads to regulate the family. On the other hand, the radical thinking of young people brings fluctuation in family affairs. Family life education is intended to minimize the possible crises in family life. It also trains them to tackle with such problems; provides knowledge about practices, values and attitudes affecting family relations.

It does not simply deal with the physiology of the reproduction, anatomical changes, human development, and sexual behavior. It focuses mainly on assisting people in developing the ability to understand themselves and the society in which they live, to learn to think independently, to work out and clarify their own values and to evaluate and use information effectively in making responsible decisions about their lives.

Family life education refers to a broad program in home, designed to impart knowledge regarding practices, values and attitudes affecting family relationships.