When you think of an ordinary traditional Catholic family, we usually say "dad, mom, and kids" ("John, Jane,and little Johnny Jr."). Notice how we normally refer to the Holy Family. It is pretty much always, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph". Jesus, the Divine Savior is first; Mary, the Mother of God is second (and before Joseph!); Joseph is last. This is clearly not a paradigm for how our families are to be ordered; children are not supposed to be the heads of the family over the parents (though numerous families end up this way, it is not right).
We refer to them as "Jesus, Mary and Joseph" because of the order of Salvation that God ordained. Jesus is the Son of God, Who came from Mary, and was protected by Joseph. Yet, in their actual family behavior, we find the perfect paradigm of our families. Joseph was the head of the family, and faithfully led the family as such. Mary is wife and mother and both submitted to Joseph's leadership and raised Jesus in the faith. Jesus was the child and He obeyed His parents.
Their relationship as a family was not merely an "old fashioned" way of doing things: it was the paradigm for every family, and we only find blessings in accord with how we follow that order. The world might give us other ideas for family order (wives in charge; 50/50 leadership; etc. -- these are all contrary to God's clear testimony of the order of a household). That does not mean that we can choose our own way and follow the world; we must be obedient to God's clear testimony (take, for example Ephesians 5:22ff). Let us pray that the Holy Family be praying for us, and that we can learn from their example on how we are to live.