Definition Essay Family

Put yourself in a position where you felt unconditional love for a certain individual and you wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of your life with them along with your children together. Imagine yourself in twenty years, rocking on a porch surrounded by a white picket fence, sipping tea out of a mug your child made for you, being surrounded by people you couldn’t live without, and feeling nothing but pure happiness. This is what it means to be a family. In the past, the word “family” had primarily been associated to a heterosexual married couple with a few children and whoever else was related them by blood. While this could be what some people believe to be the true meaning of the word, “family” can also be connected to a group of

This definition, however, could be considered quite outdated. While somebody could share common ancestry to another individual or group of people, they don’t always live together or nearby and still consider each other family. In a 2008 survey created by Pew Center Research, a statistic showed that while around 37% of people choose to stay in their same hometown, and 63% of people decide to move away. But can the act of moving away from your parents and siblings make you any less of a family? The Webster Dictionary definition also didn’t take into consideration the people who are related to each other but don’t consider themselves “Family”. Within some households, an individual may be shunned or ostracized by their relatives and may not be considered part of the family anymore. In a few religions--such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Amish--they actually possess formal policies for shunning family members for going against their religion or for committing an unforgivable sin, even though they are both a denomination of a religion that teaches forgiveness towards their neighbors. People, in order to consider their loved ones family, must be willing to accept their mistakes and love them even if some of the actions they commit might be considered wrong. A family also shouldn’t be limited to a related group of people living in the same

This mind set is usually developed at a young age through religious beliefs and other factors. According to the studies of the Family Research Council, children are in need of both a father and a mother and depriving them of this keeps them from experiencing a traditional family. This point, however, also corresponds with single parents and this source happens to only target gay couples. Another argument they made was that the children who are brought up in this type of environment are more likely to experience gender and sexual disorders. One directly stated quote from their article was, “Based on studies, sons of lesbians are less masculine and daughters of lesbian couples are more masculine.” This quote also seemingly suggest that boys and girls should be subjected to typical gender prescriptions, even though gender roles are actually more detrimental to the mental health of developing children. Judith Stacey, a sociologist and advocate for same-sex civil marriage, actually claimed, "Lesbian parenting may free daughters and sons from a broad and uneven range of traditional gender prescriptions." Homosexual relationships with children shouldn’t be denied of having a real family because of people not agreeing with their lifestyle. If two people of the