All in the family

*Our relatives from the mother’s side are called maternal relation and those from the father’s side are called paternal relatives.

Abhay looks at is mother’s album. He likes the picture of his mother dressed in the NCC uniform. She was an NCC cadet during her collage days. He also admires the picture which shows her riding a motorcycle.

Now Abhay’s mother has grown up. She works in an office. She looks after the entire family.

People change as they Grow

Abhay’s mother now looks very different from what used to look when she was very young. In old pictures, even Abhay’s grandmother looked different. She was much younger then. Now she has grey hair.

Abhay’s mother tells him that people change as they grow. Their looks, behavior and lifestyle change.

The family

Father, mother and children together make a family. Abhay’s grandmother tells him that when she was young, her grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews, all lived together in a big house. Such a big family where all the members stay together is called a joint family.

Abhay now lives only with his parents. A small family where only parents and children stay together is called a nuclear family. In cities, most people stay in nuclear families.

Do you live in joint family or a nuclear family?

Adoption

Do you know anyone who has adopted a child?

All babies need love and care. They need to be looked after. Sometimes children lose their parents in accidents or natural disasters like earthquakes, cyclones and tsunamis.

Sumangala is a little girl. She lost both her parents in the Gujarat earthquake. She was just five years old at the time. Since there was no one to look after her, she was taken to an orphanage. One day Mrs. and Mr. Singh came to the orphanage. They too had lost their only daughter in the same earthquake. They wanted to adopt a girl child and look after her.

When someone brings up a child who is not born to them, it is called adoption. The child who is cared for is called the adopted child. The parents who look after the adopted child are the foster parents of the child.

Mrs. and Mr. Singh decided to adopt Sumangala. She was happy to find a new home. So Sumangala became the adopted child of Mrs. and Mr. Singh and they became her foster parents.