Age of Mother-in-law

It was discovered that families receive more help from the wives’ parents rather than from the husbands’ parents. Also, the emotional bond was stronger among the wives’ siblings than among the husbands’, which shows changes in the representation of wives and their families in the family structure.

This also shows that the age of mother-in-law is introducing itself as demonstrated in advanced countries that parents live closer to their daughter’s family.

This fact was reported through the results of the 2003 National Family Survey, reported in January 15, which researched family ethics and family relations with the respondents of 3,500 families and 9,109 people from September to November last year by Korean Women’s Development Institute to observe the change in the family structure of Korea.

This was the first time that the national family survey probed on the gender equilibrium issue.

The survey result still confirmed the higher rate of living with the husband’s parents (11.6 percent) than living with the wife’s parents (1.7 percent).

However, the frequency of family contacts with the parents did not differ much between the husband’s side and the wife’s side since they tend to live in the same city or district, disproving the old saying, “The wife’s house and the toilet are the best at the farthest distance.”

The contact frequency of the husband with the parents-in-law was 31.7 percent, meeting them once or twice a month, which is not much different from the wife’s contact rate with the parents-in-law of 40.1 percent.

In the case of financial support, the wife’s parents’ (18.1 percent) contributed a larger rate than the husband’s parents’ (11.1 percent). This hints on the shift of power in which the wife’s parents financially support and influence the daughter’s family.

Professor of Child Development & Family Studies Han Gyeong-hye at Seoul National University said, “Still, there are much more numbers of families who live with the parents of the husband,” but added, “However, with the increased chances of women’s education and social activities, the family structure is in the progress of shifting its center toward wives and their parents.”

Sung-Hee Jung shchung@donga.com