Familial Love: What Is It, Why It Is Important, And More

The first question related to familial love is… what is familial love? It’s quite simple…do you remember when your first love came and whom it came from? Your first girlfriend or boyfriend? Your best friend? Nope! Your first love came from your parents or family members. The love you received from your parents or mother is the type of unconditional love that seeks nothing.

Do you remember the time… when you asked thousands of questions to your mother during the toddler stage, when you cuddled with your parents, when you played with your siblings in the backyard, or when your grandmother cooked everything you loved? These are the memories that are cherished in every stage of life. But, my dear friend, this is what familial love is called! This is why family is important in our life! 

Basically, family love or familial love helps in grounding and provides us a framework for better and improved relationships. Family love helps us in forming secure future relationships and attachments. We cannot deny the fact that children who have received secure and attached love from their parents form better relationships in the future. These are the things which we can do with our family. 

They actually know how to care and how to make others feel safe. If you are someone who cares for other people and their needs, you are likely responsive and received familial love. Familial love is a type of positivity that helps in forming positive attachments, improves our social functioning, and improves our overall wellbeing.

Benefits of Familial Love

There are N number of advantages of Familial Love. It’s a type of love where you feel safe, cared for, and protected. Living in the surrounding of familial love can have benefits like:

• Increased confidence and high self-esteem
• Improved conflict resolution skills
• Improved communication and social interactions
• Good physical and mental health
• Increased resilience
• Infinite support
• Improved sense of stability and predictability
• Unconditional love
• Positive light of childhood growth and experience
• Improved emotional wellbeing 

Types and Structures of Families

Below are some common types of family structures and types: 

• Nuclear Family

It is a family made up of two parents and one or more than one child.

• Blended Family

Blended families are known to be stepfamilies. They are created when a divorced, widowed or separated parent lives together.

• Single-parent family

It is a family of a single parent with a single child or multiple children. 

• Extended family

Extended family means having multiple relatives, parents, or children in family-like grandparents, nieces, uncles, aunties, and so on. 

• Childless family

A childless family is a family of two or more adults with no children.

• Chosen family

Chosen family means having the family of choice. Instead of blood relatives, when we choose our own family, it is referred to as our chosen family. 

Importance of Familial Love

As of now, we can conclude that familial love is something that helps us to make our life better. Research shows that familial love has a major impact on our mental wellbeing. The impact can be negative and positive based on the emotions and behaviors of our parents. But, there are more important factors related to familial love:

1. Unconditional Support

One of the important reasons behind familial love is the support we get throughout life. No matter what, family members and parents always got our back. They are always there to cheer our accomplishments and achievements. And, in hard times, they are always there in the corner to support us. This is why it is important to have family love in the family. 

2. Unconditional love

Our parents, family members, and siblings love us unconditionally, no matter what. They might show some embarrassment towards you during hard times, but they always got our back, they always help us to pick up the pieces and bounce back more resiliently. Family love is like this only!

3.  Easy communication

Talking to them always feels like home. No matter how bad the situation was or how bad you behaved with someone, talking to them makes us feel light. Even normal conversation can take the stress away in a minute. Therefore, Calm Sage always recommends staying in touch with your family members and to follow an effective communication style.

Pandemic and Familial Love

We cannot deny the fact that family dynamics shifted during the pandemic of Coronavirus. And, consecutively, we couldn’t spend more time with our family members due to social distancing and this resulted in stress, frustration, untold anger, isolation, and whatnot.

Due to this, some relationships frayed in our life. I still remember the time when my husband tested positive, we couldn’t see him for weeks and this resulted in a depressive environment around our home. We were all apart, distant, and isolated under the same roof. Indeed, pandemics took a toll on our mental health especially in terms of meeting family members and friends.

Not only this, students and people who study or work across the country couldn’t travel or visit them. And that is why; research shows that most people attended family therapy or individual therapy to cope with the situation. If you are also unable to cope with the situation, you can always opt for therapy.

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Tips for Maintaining Familial Love

Apart from therapy, you can always focus on sustaining familial love with the help of these tips:

1. Try to spend time with your family as a priority.
2. If you are not staying together, you can play games online.
3. Conduct virtual parties and improve bonding with your family members.
4. Write emails or letters to your parents.
5. Practice good listening skills.
6. Keep chatting or send memes to your family members.
7. Eat meals together (you can do this virtually as well).
8. Set up a weekly happy hour.
9. Keep caring and be sensitive towards your family members.
10. Express gratitude.

I hope this blog helps you to understand what familial love is and why it is important. Comment down and share your views on familial love. For more such content, connect with us on all social media platforms.

Thanks for reading!