An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family, consisting of

parents like father, mother, and their children, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins,
all living in the same household in which most of the muslim family are extended family.

Legend:
A. Membership
B. Economics
C. Security
D. Privacy

ADVANTAGES:
A. In an extended muslim family household the adults can share their worries,
stresses and responsibilities with other family members like their parents, who
genuinely care for their wellbeing. This often forms a close family support
structure which in turn reduces individual stress and promotes happiness and
supports one another in which they face all the obstacles in life together as one.

B. Sharing economic responsibilities

One of the major benefits and reasons why families move in together is that it is
often a more affordable option and can reduce the family’s money strain. Adult
children often move back in with their parents as they start off their careers or to
help them save money to buy their own home. Willing and healthy grandparents can
also help take care of young grandchildren during the day, which can save the family
a significant amount on childcare costs.
1. Child care support
Multi-parenting by various adult family members not only saves on childcare and
takes some of the load off working parents, it encourages grandparents and
children to spend time together and add value to each other’s lives. Children have
the advantage of growing up with multiple family members and also to learn about
caring for their elders, while grandparents remain productive and active while they
keep up with the children’s activities and school work.
2. Adult care giving
Many families find it much easier and simpler to care for and support elderly,
disabled or sick adult family members when they live in the same home. This way,
the household can share the care responsibilities, establish better routines with the
family members who need care and be able to notice any changes in their health or
situation much quicker.
3. Building strong family bonds
Multigenerational families who share a home often experience emotional bonding
throughout all the generations, which they may not be able to achieve if they live
further apart. Extended Muslim family living naturally encourages family members
to spend their free time together and witness each other’s daily lives.
4. A close support structure
In an extended Muslim family household the adults can share their worries,
stresses and responsibilities with other family members like their parents, who
genuinely care for their wellbeing. This often forms a close family support structure
which in turn reduces individual stress and promotes happiness.
5. Family culture and traditions
The need to cultivate and carry on family cultures and traditions throughout
different generations is often very important to families, such as ex-pat families. In
an extended Muslim family household family members can work together to expose
their children and grandchildren to some of the aspects they would experience in
their home country, such as language, foods and traditions. But this is not only true
for expat families – many non-expat families also find that their children have the
opportunity to learn different values and gain a greater understanding of traditions
when they live with multiple generations of their family.
6. Companionship
Another advantage of extended muslim family living is that family members can
frequently spend time with their loved ones. Some family members, especially
 elderly parents may become lonely and isolated when they live alone, but living
closely with family and just knowing that they are nearby usually cures any
thoughts of loneliness.

C. It has often been presumed that extended muslim family groups sharing a
single household enjoy certain advantages, such as a greater sense
of security and belonging due to sharing a wider pool of members to serve as
resources during a crisis, and more role models to help perpetuate desired
behavior and cultural values.
D. When in terms of privacy most of the extended muslim family are very respectful to
ones privacy due to the repentance to Allah (S.A.W) and that is one of the good
advantages they can pray and submit oneself to Allah (S.A.W) with pure and focus
intentions.
DISADVANTAGES:

a. Some family members become lazy

One of the disadvantages of the extended muslim family system is that some members
tend to exhibit lazy attitudes towards life. Some members think that since uncles
and aunties are there to give support, they can sit down and do no work. Some are eager
to inherit their uncles and sometimes this leads to dependence in every responsibilities in
the house and most of these leads to failure to fulfill their duties to Allah (S.A.W) and to
the dunya in which they tend to listen more to the devils playful thoughts.

b. Extended Muslim family stress financial strain mediates the relationship between income
and psychological distress, child outcomes than the objective experience of being poor
Measures of financial and sometimes this leads to conflicts because of the financial needs
of one another and could be lead to separation and becomes nuclear family for them to
sustain the main family of one another.
c. Security and safety: Security is one another disadvantage in the extended muslim
family. People feel insecure due to low trust on one another and careless of one
another, and sometimes when there are lost belongings they tend to start or blame
one another in which leads to conflicts and arguments.
d. Less privacy: in most cases they have to share a room, so privacy is rather
scarce in large families and everything they have most of the times to be shared.