[City Planning]In urban areas, some people prefer to live alone or live in a small family , rather than big extended family.Is this a positive or negative trend?

With the continually urbanization in many countries, whether or not citizens opting for living by themselves or having small families instead of living within a larger family has become a widely debated topic. While many believe that people should go for small family, others maintain that a life within a clan is a far more better choice. Given that this is an inevitable trend in light of better opportunities in urban areas, this should not be regarded as a positive or negative trend.

In terms of living standard, having less people in a household allows family members to have more space and privacy at home. For instance, people are more likely to have their own rooms at home. Another advantage is having less children is that there are closer parent-child relationships bonds, and this leads to less communication problems. More likely a child may feel neglected or unloved as the needs and requirements of each and every child cannot be met when there is a larger family. As a result, it is inevitable that this trend should follow in many years to come.

There are, however, many limitations to not having extended families and living alone. Economically speaking, less people and lower birthrates causes less available workers for the population. This would lead to more schools being closed down due to a decline in overall population. Environmentally speaking, having smaller families wastes more than larger families because larger families tend to shop less often and shop in terms of bulk which uses less packaging.

Having discussed the benefits of going for a small family and its limitations, this is a multi-faceted issue not solely positive nor negative. Moving forward, if more family planning done by the government, I am confident that the society would possibly cease to see any unpalatable outcomes of smaller family units.