What Makes a Family?

“Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we're related for better or for worse...and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum.”
       ― Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters

        This pertains with the relationship of the family as a whole. Happiness, joy, sufferings, and the feeling of being neglected is not a valid reason to affect the relationship as a family. Best thing to do is to remind every member of the family that during ups and downs; for better or for worse, that the only one, a person can lean on is the family. The reigning of love and respect is one of the things that makes out of it.

        But what really counts in a family? This is the question that always comes out to every person. Well, children make the most out of it. Why? For me, the essence of becoming a man is  to have complete participation in the process of continuity of human race and the essence of becoming a woman is to give birth. Aside from that, children are gifts and angels from God. They are the ones who keep joy and happiness in the atmosphere of the family.

        Moreover, the traditional family which consists of mother, father and their children which the top priority is how they will raise their children physically, emotionally, and spiritually is nowadays quite rare because many people today are moving into a modern type of a family. When we say modern, these are families which are single parenthood,  gay parents, child free couple, foster parents, pets as their family and children raised by grand parents.

        Along searching in the Internet about this matter, I encountered and read this article What Makes a Family? Children, Say many Americans by John Berman and Enjoli Francis which states that in the research and survey they have done last 2010, that unmarried man and woman given couple some kids, gay couple given children, and pets are part of the family. This only means that the traditional family are now slowly fading. What matters most for them is that they have their children to be raised on. These modern families are just thinking of what they believe on and don't even think what will happen in the future and the next generations if these kind of belief about family will continue and how can these matter affect on the society we are around.

       "Sixty percent of Americans in 2010 said that if you considered yourself to be a family, then you were one." One of the sentences in the article that really made me smile and think that, "If I will claim myself as a family then I would be?" Funny right? But when you dwell on it and think in more broad way, people are giving expansive meanings about what family is and makes people forget what is the true meaning of it.

Happy Reading! God Bless! :)

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As I have read the article by John Berman and Enjoli Francis , there are a lot of questions came up on my mind that I want to research more on.

Article:
     What makes a Family? Children, Say many Americans

Follow-up questions for research:
     Is single parenthood considered as family?
     Is gay parents considered as family?
     Is child free couple considered as family?
     Are foster parents considered as family?
     Are children raised by grandparents considered as family?
     Is having pet alone considered as family?
     What will be the advantages and disadvantages of these modern families to children?

Sources of Information:
     Internet
     Interviews