Family Friends and your novel

We all need critique, but when we have no body else to look at our work who do we turn to and who do we share with? Friends and Family! Of course friends are great, they adore you as a friend. But they don't care for your book. Most likely because they have no idea about the publishing or the literary world. Maybe because they are a bit envious that you wrote a novel and they didn't. When I told my friend I am trying to publish a novel she just said "Gosh you are going to be so rich." Of course my answer was "No I won't be! I will consider myself lucky if I even get an agent." So she was off the list. The problem is that they simply don't understand the hardship and the competitive world of writing. so then it comes to family...


you see them often and lots of you even live with them so why not let them read your novel? To be honest I saw too much advice to never let your family critique your work, particularly your loving mother but from personal experience it really depends. For me, my mother helped me tons with my novel. I guess this is an exception though because she is in science (Bio-physics and brain research) and she has the most logical mind ever. If she reads something and it doesn't make logical sense she tells me, because she knows I want to be published and she knows you have to be tough on the manuscript for that. So what about you guys, do you let your family read your novel? How about friends? What do you think are the pros and cons?