Management Of Family Resources

Lesson 13 : Goals

Changing Of Goals

Goals are related to the stages of family life cycle and goals are set according to the stages in which the family belongs and the interests capabilities of the family members and availability of resources in that stage.

Specific goals and even values and their relative importance change from time to time gradually over a long period as the family passes from one stage of life cycle to other. In the earlier stage one may be more interested in establishing a home for oneself and when the children grow up, the focus is more on the education of the children and later establishing family financial security.

In changed circumstances like a crisis in the family, also would be a turning point, when families have to re-appraise the resource situations and review the goals. A serious accident or illness, death, divorce, unemployment, crop failures or declining markets may bring sudden changes in family life. Any one of these events may affect financial plans, change hopes for children, or lead to loss of position or home. All of these occurrences require a reappraisal of family goals and the patterns of values for each family member, with the result that many changes may be necessary in the family’s way of life.

As ideas of values and supply of resources change, new goals will be created or accepted and means would be devised to realize them. On the other hand, with resource limitations, some goals will not be attainable and hence may have to be deleted.

The major goals that are created and sought by each family naturally grow out of its own environment and experience. Although the goals of families differ in some respects, the major and ultimate goals of homemaking may be stated as follows:

1. Optimum physical and mental health for each member of the family.
2. Optimum development of the individual member of the family.
3. Developing, Satisfying interpersonal family relationships.
4. Recognition, acceptance and appreciation of human differences.
5. Establishing satisfactory relationship with the community and other subsystems of the society.

The goals of an individual person or family are probably much influenced by the social group with which one interacts. This is true in terms of students when they are compared with their reference group or homemakers with their social group. In each situation their goals would be moulded by the peer influences.