Families are more then just a mom, a dad, and children.

We also have aunts, uncles, and cousins. Marriage and commitment let's us keep these connections, and gives us support. Back about two-three years ago when I started to post on Opine, I talked about 'Perfect Strangers'. Many of use have situations we were lose relatives, even though they maybe only live a few miles away or even in the same neighborhood. We lose contact, simply because families break up too often. I cam across this article from Singapore, where no family system exists for many who are isolated. Hong Kong Parent-Child Suicide Rate Up, Support Limited

Cheung is particularly concerned about maternal perpetrators of filicide-suicide in Hong Kong, many of whom have been immigrants from mainland China married to local men. "These immigrant wives aren't eligible for welfare systems or public housing until they fulfill a seven-year residency requirement," says Cheung. "If their Hong Kong husband leaves them, they become stranded." Choi Sai-mui, who plunged with her son from the Tsing Yi Bridge, was one of these women. So was the woman who in 2007 tied the hands and feet of her 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son before jumping with them from the window of their flat. Feelings of isolation unite these cases. Researchers agree that in instances of filicide-suicide, parents feel there is no friend or relative able or trustworthy enough to care for the children. "In Hong Kong, it's common not to know neighbors who have been beside you for 10 years," says researcher Yip. While social and mental-health workers have been asked to pay close attention to depressed parents of small children, professional help remains thin on the ground in Hong Kong and is no substitute for a strong personal-support network. (my emphasis) "It is packed here," says Yip of a city whose population density, at its highest, exceeds 50,000 per sq km. "Physically we are very close, but emotionally we could not be more distant."