Since Goku was a small child, the only love that he was able to express was a love towards his grandfather Gohan. He was never around other human beings other than Bulma at the start of dragonball. The most basics concepts of family life were not introduced to Goku until he spent time with Bulma in dragonball. To the day that Chichi asked him to marry her, Goku did not know of family dedication and affection. Even though he did not have these experiences, Goku is inherently good, pure, kind, friendly, and comforting because of his upbringing. These qualities CANNOT be dismissed from his personality later in his life even when he accepts his Saiya-jin blood. No matter how immersed Goku becomes later in DBZ with battle and training, his ideology always remains.
The thing that should be considered foremost is the reasoning behind Goku’s training. The underlying purpose to it all is to protect life and to uphold honor and justice. People often bring up Goku leaving his family to train Uub. This is the one instance where I see a slight gaffe in Goku’s actions. This one fault that I have is that it is never shown how he visits his family. But Goku did spend 10 entire years home with his family spending entire days at home just with chichi and his boys. THAT is a father and husband. When he goes off to be with Uub, he has been waiting for 10 years to once again have a good fight without having a danger to the Earth. He knows Uub’s potential and that he would be the perfect warrior to protect the Earth as the next generation hero. Goku knew that there was no way that he was or even wanted to try to convince Gohan to abandon his studious lifestyle to train, and Goten was beyond being able to be coerced to train like a saiya-jin. Uub was already at such a high level when he was so young, yet there was still so much left for the master Goku to teach him.
I'm really getting tired of how people are continually critizing Goku for leaving to train and I see this an all new trend in the not so new Goku bashing problem; now that those final episodes of DBZ have been aired on YTV (Canada) and Cartoon Network. On one hand they expect him to be Mr. Perfect and save the universe and if he does one thing wrong suddenly everyone flames him, and on the other hand, people can't understand why he doesn't have much spare time to spend with his family compared to others. You must remember, he's got more responsibilities then anyone can hope to imagine.
Goku is a father, husband, hero, master, and teacher. The big comparison is “who is a better family man…Goku or Vegeta.” The answer to this involves many facets. Goku grew up as a human being. He married Chichi and was a father to young Gohan when he himself was still a young man. He spent his time being close to his son and wife until the arrival of Radditz when he died. Vegeta lived his life according to his saiya-jin lifestyle of strength, honor, dominance, and ambition. For him to change his entire life upon meeting Bulma and mirai(future) trunks is extraordinary. He saw the flaws in his old life and he learned of true love and compassion. He spent his days in the 7 years of peace following the Cell games with his son Trunks and wife Bulma. It should be determined that Goku and Vegeta are both equally caring and loving family men at the end of dbz.
Goku is a true family man. He puts the well-being of his family and friends ahead of everything. Dragonball GT should not be included in Goku’s evaluation because his true personality and character is not demonstrated in that particular series. Goku is not as aggressive as he appears in GT. He does everything he does because he knows that he has the power within himself to protect life in general. Because of his upbringing in raw nature, he has a love and appreciation for all life, not just human beings. Goku is truly special because he uses his saiya-jin abilities towards his mission to protect life. This is a display of compassion, empathy, responsibility, and his feelings towards his loved ones show that Goku is a excellent family man.