When you think about the signification of the word family, many things come to mind; love, blood, brother and sister, a group of people from the same household… As time passes and society evolves, things tend to be redefined and they have a tendency to change from what we know. If you look up the word family in a dictionary or on the Internet, the word is defined as “a group consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unit” or “a group of people who are related to each other,” another one that can be found is “a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head.”
Where do the single parent household fit in there? What are the adopted kids to the so-said family if they don’t share the blood of their adopted parents? What about the same sex couples who have kids? Are all these people not real families?
We live in the 21st century and things evolve all the time, mentalities have radically changed in the last century; people of the same sex can get married in plenty of countries around the world, women are now free to divorce their husbands without being afraid of the consequences it could have, parents who don’t have the money or the ability to raise their child can give it away to loving and caring adopting families. We are far away from the life situation our ancestors knew a little over a century ago. Why hasn’t the definition of the word family change then? Wouldn’t it be wise to modify the definition of this so important word as we go through time? We have all learned to know that there isn’t one perfect family, we all sin and we all make mistakes but we learn from them and we move forward to build a better world and to create a better social environment for ourselves.
Maybe the word family meant one thing to our grandparents but I am a 100 percent sure it means something different to our parents and it will mean something different to us and to our children in the future. It doesn’t mean that what they knew in the past was wrong but it surely doesn’t mean that what we know today is wrong either.
If you ask me what a family is I would answer you with this: a family is people who love and care for each other, people who respect each other’s belief, people who enjoy spending time together and look forward to tomorrow’s adventures regardless of blood type, skin color, religious belief, age, sex and ethnicity.
Let’s take one of Hollywood’s most famous family the “Brangelina’s,” to me they aren’t a bizarre family or a different family, they are just a family. To me they are even more extraordinary than “simple” families because they are diverse, they come from different places and culture but together they create this bubble of love and diversity that can face anything coming their way. The Brangelina’s aren’t the only stars who decided to go with adoption; Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman or Sharon Stone have all decided to create their own little (or not so little) families by adding a child with whom they did not share blood. Just like millions of families around the world this blood barrier didn’t stop them from loving and caring for the new member of their family.
The families of today aren’t just blood or adoption; they also become this new thing when a mom and a dad with children from previous union get together. As a child from a recomposed family I could go on and on for hours about how amazing this “new kind” of family is. Of course the beginning is always rough and it’s a pill hard to swallow but when tears are replaced by laughter and smiles that’s when you realize that new is good.
