... want to. Parsons said that family's pre-industrialisation were extended, because they lived and worked together, and working as a family unit. It was simply easier that way, although there would be more mouths to feed, it would also mean that the family could get more done whilst living together. Also children would be educated at home by their parents and they would work and support each other. However Parsons said that due to industrialisation, the extended family changed, to the isolated nuclear family, or as Kimball and Arensberg said the 'classic' extended family. Kimball and Arensberg did a study in Ireland where families were mainly patriarchal; therefore the father was the head of the house and made all the decisions. A family there tended to consist of the male head, wife, children, grandparents and any unmarried siblings, still working together as a unit. However there is evidence to say that we ...

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