Dual Earning Family: Benefits with Problems I

By- SAUMYA MEHRA

Dual earning family means where both spouse engage in earning. In today’s society , economical condition, couple preferences and family needs have created many dual earning families.  These type of families have some benefits and some issues too. Mostly women have to play dual role as a earner and house maker too. Most of family has developed their  own strategy to handle all issue.

Read some following situation of dual earner families :

Case 1:

·      Family type-  lower Middle class Joint family  (9 members in this family)

·      Family details - 2 children  within 2-3 years old ,  mother in law and a father in law both are more than 60 age and , 2 spouse and 3 studying brothers of male spouse

In this family, both spouse are engage in earning to full fill their daily expenses, need of families and for better livelihood, but as  parents are old and other members are very small, they are not able to do work.  Financial situation is not enough to hire a maid and the three brothers being busy in studies, so they also are not able to do the household works. 

In this family the level of work load is very very high and only woman does all the household work. She wakes up at 3 am, completes the official register work and then make breakfast for all and washes clothes and utensils and then goes to office, usually she makes daal (lentil) in the morning and her mother in law makes the rice at lunch time then she comes home at evening and does the remaining household work. 

In this family money is also a problem as only two earners are there but expenses are more. And the 2 little babies are taken cared by their grand parents.

 Problem- work burden and money problem. Both of spouse are working and hardly with effort they are full filling their needs, so it is their genuine need to work both for bread and butter, working woman has very load for both office and house work.

Case 2 :

·      Family type-  High Economic class nuclear family, 4 member

·      Family details : 2 kids and 2 spouse . Husband profession- ex army man and currently govt. teacher .

Wife profession- govt. School’s principle

This family has various source of income, husband is getting regular salary from present job, pension from previous job, wife also gets salary as good amount, they have land and paternal property at village also from which they get grains and other food materials, extra income as well. Overall they earn well, expenses are not much high but they are not satisfied and always complaint each other regarding spending money, relationship is so ruined that both spouse don't have healthy conversation, thoughts of husband and wife are not same, husband like to adopt healthy eating habit while wife permit their child to eat whatever they want, there is hostility in relationship and clashes of egos.   

·      

      Problem: Hostile relationship , lack of common point of view, Ego clash, greed etc

Case 3 :

·      Family type : Middle class nuclear family

·      Family details : 2 school going kids , two spouse ,

       Wife's’s profession- Teacher, 

        Husbands’s profession- police inspector ,

In this case the workload is very less as the family is small and they have a maid for household works, all the outdoor works are done by husband, woman has to do only teaching their kids and cooking food . Their mutual understanding is also very good, take decision mutually.

 Problem : No problem

From above real examples, we observe that every family has their own family context, understand and nature of work. Earning is important for fulfill needs, requirements, but for better relationship mutual understanding is very necessary. 

Benefits Of dual Earning Couples  –

·      Money – Money is the primary benefit of dual earning family. It provides other secondary basic amenities as well like housing, education, comfort, and Many more . Beyond basic survival, money gives you opportunity to live a healthier life and  a luxurious life too.

·      Personal development- Personal development includes activities that improve personal identity , awareness and potential as well. In this dual earning family both the spouse get various opportunities from their work place ,it increases their experience of doing something and make them more knowledgeable and being independent is also a development.

·      Respect- The people who does job are more respectable in the eye of society and . Every person in this world want 3 things in life money ,  respect and happiness.And about happiness: money and respect leads you to happiness.

^·        Security- It provides security to both the individuals and mainly this dual earning new form of family has generated security for women  strengthen up women  in ancient  women were helpless once they got married then it was mandatory for them to continue it even when they were physically harassed.Financial independence can be one of the most important variables that influence the quality of a woman’s life.

To be continue in next part ..
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