What Is A Family?

In the passage of time, the world has seen changes in the structure of a family. Typically, a family is composed of a father, mother and one or more children living in the same lodging (definition of a nuclear family). However, there are other forms/types of family that exist. An example of these is an extended family where a nuclear family or single-parent family lives with any extended family members. Like, for example, in my own case, I am currently living in a house somewhere in Pasay together with my nuclear family, my grandmother, one uncle, two aunties and 3 cousins making us an extended family. There is also this instance when a childless family adopts a child. Considering all of these, a family can also be defined as a group of people who may not be blood-related but are bonded with love, respect and concern for each other.

Today I came across with an article written by Jan Hare and Lizbeth A. Gray entitled All Kinds of Families: A Guide for Parents, an article from CYFERnet. This article talks about the different forms of a family and how it can affect children. This article aims to make its readers understand what really makes a group of people a family. In the article, a family has been defined as 'a heterosexual couple and their offspring, sharing a common dwelling and dividing work by gender'. This is also a definition of a typical/traditional family, that .is, a father and a mother and their own child/children and the father is the one who works while the mother is the one in-charge with the household.

The article also provides us some other forms of families which currently exist in the majority of households around the world. Let's take a look at them. 

• Cohabiting Families
In these families, an unmarried couple (man and woman) lives together in a single house. If there are children, at least one of the couple is a biological or adoptive parent.
• Single-Parent Family
In this family, there is only one parent in the home.
• Blended Families and Step-families 
In these families, children who are not blood related may live in the same house.
• Grandparent-led Families
The grandparents are the one who take the lead responsibility of child care when their biological parents are working, have died or cannot take good care of them.
• Families in Which the Adult or Adults are Lesbian or Gay
The children in these families are raised by lesbian or gay parents. Adults may bring children from a heterosexual relationship to these families or children may be adopted or they may be conceived by assisted reproductive technologies, such  as Intrauterine Insemination or In Vitro Fertilization.
• Commuter Families
In these families, the parents live and work in different places in which one parent is the one who provides the primary residence while the other parent comes home after work but only for a short period of time.
• Foster and Group Home Families
Children may live with foster parents and institutional child care workers while problems with their biological parents or guardian are being resolved.

As we notice in today’s society, these family forms became more common and the typical/traditional family less prevalent. A family is no longer composes of just a father and a mother and their child/children. Actually, there are a lot of variations which can be made nowadays. It can now also be just a mother and her daughter/son or a father or a mother and his/her dog and etc. Over time, the traditional form had to adopt with changes like divorce, unmarried couples, single-parenthood, same-sex marriage and a lot more.

In my opinion, having a different or weird (what other people would say) family structure doesn't really matter. No matter what form of family you have doesn't make you different from the others. Although it's true that there are really some people who think that they are outcasts in their society. Let’s say that you have that so-called traditional family but you and your family members have awful relationships while your friend/classmate is being raised by a gay or a lesbian parent or is an adopted child but they have a healthy family relationship. The structure of a family doesn't determine how healthy the family is or how they function. It is simply the physical makeup of the relationships of each member regardless of their functions. So what really makes a family? A German poet named Johann Schiller have the perfectly describe a family when he said “It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.” This definition depicts that it is not only by marriage, blood or adoption that makes a group of people a family. It is also the love, respect and concern that each person has towards the other that make a family.