Throughout the last century there have been major changes in families. There has been a major transformation of family life and there is no longer a “typical” family that people aim to achieve. All families are different and there is no longer the superficial sameness of families. Some major changes that have risen in the last century that have come to people’s attention is, marriage, cohabitation, divorce, and diverse family structures. Each person has their own concept of their typical family and I will describe my position on how these changes have affected people.
In society today there is no single definition of the American family. There are many different types of family structures; like multiracial families, same sex partners, single-parent
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It seems that lesbians and gay men are constructing families of choice from partners, friends and some relatives (Cherlin, 2013). They use the term family in a different way than most people do because they have a “family of choice”. Sociologists came up with this term and it is defined as “a family formed through voluntary ties among individuals who are not biologically or legally related” (Cherlin, 2013, p. 191). Lesbians and gay men that are not allowed to get married and some states have to construct their own families. Usually their friends were a central part of their family because they are the ones who are supporting them the most. I think this new type of family is used by more people than just lesbians and gay men. With the families of choice structure it can blur the boundaries between relatives and friends. The relatives will become more like friends to the central person and the friends will become more like the relatives (Cherlin, 2013). To most people this doesn’t seem like a family because they would just call people unrelated friends; but, to lesbians and gay men these are their