Parental Duties: The Burden of Sons

Abstract

This chapter provides detailed information about aspects of parental obligations to help their sons establish their own families, and the changes in the performance of these obligations since 1949. Parents’ financial support for their sons is essential for them to establish their own families. Young men whose parents shirk their obligations to pay marriage-related expenses risk remaining single all their lives. Understanding parental obligations and how they have changed helps the reader to gain a better understanding of intergenerational practices in general. Structural change since 1949 has played a key role in shaping how parental obligations are understood and performed. The increasingly heavy burden for parents is largely a result of these political and economic changes.