Extended and nuclear family When talking about family, a distinction is made between extended and nuclear families. The nuclear family includes only parents and children. The extended family is everyone who is related by blood and by marriage: aunts, uncles, grandparents, nieces, nephews, in-laws, etc. In the West, the importance of extended family has been decreased greatly in the last 50 years. But the extended family has many economic benefits. Grandparents help with childcare, and in turn, they are looked after when they are old. Also when domestic chores are shared by many, living costs decrease. But in recent years, young people are choosing to live in nuclear families so the economics have been changing. The older generation says that traditional family values are being lost, but the more serious economic issue is that everyone's network has been taking away.