The Conservative Case Against the Nuclear Family

After my great aunt’s funeral a few months ago, my father took me for a ride around his old neighborhood. Newark’s North Ward was a lively Italian enclave until the majority of the residents “flew” to the suburbs in the 1970s. Next to my father’s childhood home was a twin home where his mother’s parents and her sister’s family lived. A block away he pointed out a tall white house where his paternal grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins lived. He reminisced about playing with his sisters and cousins in the street under the watchful eye of his grandparents and aunts, who also cooked for them and told them stories about the old country. Though I did not grow up with extended family members in my house, nearly all of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins lived less than ten minutes away.