Gutful of the 'family unit'

Incidences today and leading up to today has broken all my faith in the concept of a 'family unit' or at least, the extended family unit. I am dubbing it a useless and unneccesary rule of society that, with time, falls apart and dissolves, rendering it non-existent.

I may sound like a sceptic or a teenager in angst, but from what I have observed and experienced, 'family' and other terms related to the unit (such as mother, father, sibling etc) is just a label of obligation which ties people with other people.

Sure, a husband and wife or spouses can be considered as a 'family' unit, but I believe that this relationship works because of their friendship.

A young family with kids works because the children are dependant on their parents and it seems to be a rule of nature that something people 'create' or choose to have in their care are unconditionally loved... sometimes I wonder if there are exceptions to this rule.

As a family matures, flaws are exposed, the true nature of each individual is realised and subsequently, the ties are loosened.

I think the reason why the family model is flawed is because of the depth of a person you get to know someone. As the saying goes "you can't choose your family" but you can choose your friends, and if a bond of friendship isn't established, you have a meaningless relation kept together with the band-aid: family.

A lot of the times, a 'family gathering' is an obligation surrounded by issues of 'face' and 'respect' - but society has become the time of the 'I', should the concept of family keep up with the times?!

I'm not saying that people won't be able to get along with all of their family members, I think you can establish a relationship with those you have become friends with.

The HSBC's study which surveyed 2500 riches people in Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Mumbai showed that Sydney-siders saw buying property before family.
First, I'm not rich... nor do I intend or expect to be, and I can tell you that my way of thinking did not come from living here. Could these rich Sydney people think the same way as me because of what they've seen too? Or are they just dickheads... I think it might be the latter...

Gees, need to get ready to go out... I'm sure a few more pars can be churned out...................

I'm just sad to see efforts wasted in vain and that my previous way of thinking is merely a pipe dream and reality is that its a dog-eat-dog world.