BLOG #1

I have to start off by asking my fellow friends and classmates to please take some time to read through my blogs and reply or comment. Unfortunately for the first 8 weeks of class I was very sick so I am now just getting my blog 1 and 2 completed.

This first blog I want to start off by noting that in my life, family is very important to me. When I saw that there was a course offered called Children, Youth and Families I was excited to take it.

I want my first blog to focus on: "What is a family?"  

In the first unit the notes mention that cultural anthropologists argue that "family" is universal. The unit continues on discussing Malinowski's opinion of the family unit that is based on "deep necessary dependence between a mother and a child." Past definitions of family discuss the family as nuclear.  

Taken from Wikipedia: The nuclear family or elementary family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a pair of adults and their children. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple; the nuclear family may have any number of children. The notes in unit one looked at another defition of the family…it is drawn from an old social anthropology text first published in 1963: “ The family is a social arrangement based on marriage and the marriage contract, including the recognition of the rights and duties of parenthood, common residence for husband, wife and children, and reciprocal obligations between husband and wife.”

(William N. Stephens The Family in Cross Cultural Perspective)

I disagree with all of these definitions. To be honest, I don’t think there is one set definition of what a family is. I don’t think family is limited to relatives either. I think a family can consist of friends as well. For example we have a friend of the family who lost his mother and who has some other personal issues with his father and brother and we consider part of our family. He is always present at all of our family functions such as family parties, birthdays, New Year ’s Eve, Thanksgivings and at Christmas. When he was younger he lived with us for a while on and off. We consider him part of our family.

I also don’t think that a family needs to be nuclear to be considered a family. Especially this day in age where there are so many different types of families: Nuclear, Single-Parent Families

Adoptive/Foster Families, Never-Married Families, Grandparents as Parents and Same-Sex Parent Families.

In her article Coontz discusses the transformation of marriage. This reminds me of the quote above by William Stephens and I disagree as well. I don’t think that marriage is part of what makes a family. A lot of people are choosing to have children, adopt children and still raise them without being married. A lot of people end up getting divorced and a family consists of extended step family members as well. All in all I think everyone has their own personal opinion on what makes a family depending on each individual story.