This page was put onto my website because to me family is the most important thing in my life and so I wanted them to be represented on here as well. The great thing about family is that there isn't just one cookie-cutter type. There are so many types, each one unique in its own way. The only thing that all families have in common is the bond, comfort, and love that comes from it. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family of my own and I would not be the person I am today without their love and support.
What Is Family?
What is the definition of family? Once looked up, the definition of family is “a group consisting of parents and their children living together in a household” (Google). This definition, though true, only describes a fraction of households where this type of family resides. There are multiple types of families, some who have one parent, multiple parents, or extended kin. Are those considered families, too? What about people who have no blood related kin left? Does this mean they have no family, or can friends be considered family? How many types of family structures are there, you ask? There are many, including family structures from regular nuclear households, extended family households, and gay/lesbian families, to polygamy households. This page is designated to help give an insight to the different types of families.
Nuclear Family
The nuclear family is thought of as the "traditional family," with two parents and siblings. However, "traditional" does not mean "simple"(Meyerhoff). Throughout the ages a nuclear family has usually been considered a father and a mother taking care of their offspring. The parents must decide when to have children, who will be the main care provider for the children, who will go to work while the kids are being raised, and how to raise them. As with nuclear families, the work must be evenly distributed among the parents.
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Extended Family
Extended family households have gone on for centuries. In some cultures still today it is expected of newlyweds to move into either the groom’s or bride’s parents’ house to live. In China, the eldest son is expected to take in his parents once they get to be a certain age. In America, relatives are more likely to be spread across states rather than just down the road like in the past. However, due to the economic status of the United State over the years, many American families have adopted the extended family household structure to help with financial stability.
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Single Parent
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Single parenting is a common form of household structure in the United States and around the world. However, the numbers tip in the direction of single parent mothers. Whether it is from divorce, death, or never getting married in the first place, women have taken on the challenge of being both the breadwinner and the housekeeper, two difficult roles on their own, and even more difficult managed as one.
Gay/Lesbian Family
Gay and lesbian households are no different than heterosexual households. The only difference is there are either two fathers or two mothers. Usually, the way these couples have children is through adoption or artificial fertilization. Unfortunately, in some states adoption for gays and lesbians has become extremely difficult. Sadly, some people believe that if gays and lesbians have children, then their sexual preferences will be passed down to their kids, the children will be sexually abused, or the children will suffer in school because of their parents’ sexuality. With hope these views will change as time goes on.
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Polygamy
Polygamy rarely occurs here in the United States. Some people in the Mormon faith still practice polygamy, usually with a man taking multiple wives. This type of family structure has been popularized by TLC’s hit TV series Sister Wives. This series depicts the life of four women who all married the same man and had his children. It shows the daily struggles the family endures being a polygamist family and how they cope with the stress. With this particular family, the mothers each have their own separate houses. Kody, the husband, makes his trips to each house at least once a week to make sure his children and wife are doing alright. His children recognize their mother as being their main mother, but consider the other wives of their father to be secondary mother figures. They also consider all their half-brothers and sisters to be only their brothers and sisters, no matter who the mother is. This form of polygamy is commonly practiced for religious reasons.
However, in many countries such as Africa, Asia, and the West Indies they practice polygamy for economic reasons. With a few of these countries land is sometimes hard to come by, especially fertile land able to grow crops. So when a family has more than one son, instead of dividing up the family land to the brothers, they all take one wife and share the land. This type of marriage is known as Fraternal Polyandry, which “Is one of the world’s rarest forms of marriage” (Goldstein 173). Usually, the oldest brother is the “head” of the household. However, each brother is treated equally in the marriage. All offspring are treated equally as well and there is no attempt to find the child’s biological father. This type of structure allows for only one set of heirs per family and keeps the family lands within the family.
However, in many countries such as Africa, Asia, and the West Indies they practice polygamy for economic reasons. With a few of these countries land is sometimes hard to come by, especially fertile land able to grow crops. So when a family has more than one son, instead of dividing up the family land to the brothers, they all take one wife and share the land. This type of marriage is known as Fraternal Polyandry, which “Is one of the world’s rarest forms of marriage” (Goldstein 173). Usually, the oldest brother is the “head” of the household. However, each brother is treated equally in the marriage. All offspring are treated equally as well and there is no attempt to find the child’s biological father. This type of structure allows for only one set of heirs per family and keeps the family lands within the family.
Stepfamilies
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Stepfamilies are quite common in our society today, much more than what they were in our past. They are a result of when a divorced or widowed mother or father remarries and tries again at having a family. Sadly the word “step” has acquired a negative connotation to go with it. These negative thoughts come from the famous story Cinderella when she gained a wicked step-mother and two evil step-sisters. This makes changing into a step-family difficult for some young children. The thought that all step-mothers and step-siblings are going to be evil and try to ruin their lives makes the transitions harder than they need to be. Another challenged faced by step-families is the raising of the children. They are not only raised by one set of main parents, but possibly two. For step-families to be a family they need to talk about how they want to parent their children, visitations, and learn how to work together so they can become one big happy family.
Adopted Family
Adoption, at one point in history, was needed in great demand due to abandoned infants. Luckily, that is not the case in today’s society due to the help of birth control, legalization of abortion, and the acceptance of being a single mother. When a child is adopted into a family it may not be of the parents’ blood but of their love and want of a child. Just because the child was adopted does not mean he or she are any less a part of the family than anyone else. There are three ways to adopt a child. There are adoption agencies, private adoptions, and foreign adoptions. . Whatever type of adoption is chosen the result is typically the same: unconditional love from a new family.
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What is Family?
What is family then? It could be anything from nuclear, extended, single-parents, gay/lesbian, polygamy, adoption, and many more. Family should not be defined as a mother and a father with their offspring, but as a group of people, blood related or not, who live with each other and who care and love one another through the good times and the bad.