Free Essay About Family: Definition And Classification

Humans are a diverse and ever-evolving species. Our relationships are complex, and sometimes we change them out of necessity. Many times, it can be difficult to categorize or define how we feel about one another, or the dynamics of the relationships we share, especially since they change with relative frequency. This has happened many times throughout our history as mankind has developed into what it is today. We are not a species that stays at a standstill with one another, even with intimacy. The definition of “family” has been written and rewritten, as we have redefined the classifications for what meets the criteria for a “family.” Whether a group, or a couple, a nuclear family, or a more unorthodox arrangement, there are many classifications that today fall under the definition of family. The more categories we have used, the more we have realized that human emotions also need to be taken into account when categorizing and defining family units.
Family is first defined and categorized by the size. Prior to World War II, as well as during and even after the war, the typical size for a family consisted of four, sometimes five people. Two parents and two or three children were categorized as a family. The unit was considered the “Nuclear Family,” and was a well-known American symbol for many years. As time went on, the size of families began to change. The number of children began to vary. For example, the Baby Boomer generation saw families with five children or more. Sometimes families had as many as ten children. The size of the families had increased, but the units were still defined as families. The majority of Baby Boomers, as they are now known, did not strike out into the world, having an equal number of children. Future generations saw a decrease in the number of children in each household. Some had one or two children, while other couples opted not to have children at all. Eventually, it was realized that the size of the unit did not matter. Whether there were no children or fifteen children, a couple and any subsequent offspring were considered a family regardless of their number.
Size or the number of individuals is only one way to categorize and define families. As divorce became more popular and accepted after the war, more adjustments had to be made to the categorization of what made a family. Decades ago, a unit was only considered a complete family if the mother and father were married, hence the pressure for young, pregnant, unwed mothers to marry the father of their children or give the baby up for adoption. Being defined as a family in conservative terms was very important. Unfortunately, it appeared these unions resulted in unhappy lives, eventually ending in divorce. The world was forced to reexamine what it meant to be a family. Suddenly, mothers and fathers were single, raising children jointly or by themselves. Many pregnant, unwed mothers were also choosing not to marry, raising children on their own. In popular terms for the time, a single mother raising her children would not have been considered a family. However, as time went on and this structure became more common, society was forced to realize that a married couple was not the foundation of a family; a family could indeed be made up of a single mother or father raising the children. Moreover, a family could be made up of two divorced parents making a joint effort to raise their children. Family did not have to be categorized by a marriage between the child’s parents.
Once it was understood that a marriage between the child or children’s parents was not the only thing that categorized a family, it was easy for society to make the transition from married parent, to single parent, to stepparent. Many single parents and divorced parents wished to find companionship, as well as help rearing their offspring. Family, once categorized purely by numbers and genetics, once again needed to re-categorized. Sociologically, it has been found that children and stepparents are capable of building bonds that can help the child, as well as the adult, feel as though they are a part of the family unit. Bonds between the child and the genetic parent may always be stronger, but it does not mean that stepparents are without necessity when a parent remarries. Bonds, of course, form between the stepparent and the biological parent prior to the child forming a bond with the stepparent. These overlaying bonds help create a cohesive bond throughout the unit that allows families to also be categorized by the presence of stepparents.
The presence of both biological parents, the absence of a parent, and the presence of a stepparent are all basis for categorization when defining a family. One would think it would be easy to continue re-categorizing to define a family as a union between two males, or two females, as well as a unit containing children raised by a couple of the same sex. However, this has been a battle of increasing ferocity that only gained a strong foothold in recent years. For decades, the majority of society appeared to believe that two homosexuals were not categorized as a family themselves, no matter how in love, bonded, or committed to one another they were. To allow the couple to raise children, no matter how safe and loving the environment appeared to be out of the question. Slowly though, within the last decade, society’s idea of what it means to be a family has begun to finally include homosexuals. Homosexual couples are recognized, both in the eyes of society, as well as in the eyes of the law. They are able to marry, and divorce. They are seen as a family. They are also able to adopt children, as well as have their own children using various channels. The unit is becoming more accepted as a categorization of what defines a family.
Yet another, less orthodox categorization of family concerns children raised by individuals when neither person is a biological parent. Adoption has been accepted for many years, but this scenario concerns children who live with grandparents, parents of friends, or in foster care. For a time, these strange units were not thought to be permanent family units, but only temporary placeholders until a “real” and definitive family was found to be suitable for the child. However, many children remain in these placement situations for much of their lives. Foster homes, for example, become many children’s homes forever. The couples they are placed with become their parents, and their foster brothers and sisters become their siblings, though they are not related biologically. The public again was forced to reevaluate the criteria they use to categorize and define families, finally realizing that even units in which nobody is biologically related serves the purpose of a family for all involved.
The unconventional formats for a family provided by homosexual unions and foster homes allowed for further categorization of family that included human emotion, safety, and a desire to belong. These three factors transcended the almost ancient ideals surrounding the Nuclear Family. For example, human emotion does not see the Nuclear Family as the only way to gain a family unit. A person loves whom they love, and they cannot help it. A couple will choose a child to adopt, raise it as their own, and love it as their own. In turn, the child will love the couple as they have their own biological parents. There is no difference between this dynamic and that of a family choosing to have a child biologically. More interestingly, human emotions expand the categorization of family indefinitely. Today, it is normal for individuals to feel a strong bond, or love, for people they have worked with or created something with together. For example, a team of researchers working for NASA who have spent six years collecting data and solving a crucial scientific question may begin to feel like a family. They will develop bonds based on their shared work and passion, and will spend their time encouraging and supporting one another. Wanting the best for one another, familial feelings are likely to develop. Therefore, a way to categorize a family and define it can be based on human emotions.
Feelings of safety are also likely to cultivate familial bonds. An individual who feels safe with another, or with a unit, will begin to accept the customs and traditions of the group in order to maintain the feeling of safety. Humans, like dogs and other animals, have a pack mentality. We seek the warmth and security of others. Family and the safety a family provides is something we crave. A family could be nothing more than a modern word we have given our latent pack instincts that sometimes cannot be fulfilled through the stereotypical Nuclear Family. For instance, an individual may have be a part of standard four-person home, with a heterosexual, married couple and one sibling. However, they may feel unsafe. A member of the family may be abusive or otherwise untrustworthy. If the individual has been alienated because they cannot feel safe, they are unlikely to feel as if they are a part of a family. If they are able to find a person, or a group in which they feel safe, they may feel familial bonds again. Many people find it through religious fulfillment (a church family) while others seek safe refuge in close friends (“My friends are my family”). The feeling of safety creates a new category in which to define family.
Perhaps the most overwhelming, more than any other potential criteria serving to categorize what a family is, is the desire to belong. More than anything, people want to belong. Sometimes the feeling is so overwhelming, and typical families do such a poor job of meeting these needs, that individuals turn to cults to have this need met. Feeble minded and desperate to be accepted and understood, the cult brainwashes them, first making them feel accepted, and them rebranding them to believe everything the cult believes. The individual may potentially die believe the cult members are their family, solely because the cult understood that people have an inherent desire to be connected to a family that wants them; people want to belong. In less dramatic instances, people feel as though they belong in their own families, or they happen to stumble into other groups wherein they belong. An individual may feel as though they belong with a specific group of friends, and that will begin to feel like a family, or they may feel as though they belong with their coworkers, and that will begin to feel like a family. Regardless of the circumstances, the need to belong, as well as feelings of belonging is important criteria when categorizing and defining family.
In sum, families fit into many categories. They can be categorized by size. Some families have no children, while some have fifteen. They can also be categorized by their initial foundation. Some families begin with biological parents who married. Others begin with single parents. Still more integrate stepparents, or begin with homosexual couples. Other families must be categorized more haphazardly. Some families are a mess of children and foster parents, or children and grandparents. Part of the categorization process is taking into account how the individual feels. Love, safety, and belonging are important. If a family feels love, regardless of size or blood ties, they are a family. If they feel safe and belong, they are a family, with the exception of cults because they are psychologically damaging and illegal. With all if this information in mind, families are defined simply enough, by the members of the family. If there is love, there is a family. Categorical strategies are important for some to understand the dynamics of a family, but the core of defining a family lays within each member a family.