Blended Family Research Paper

Family is one small word with lots of strong, powerful meanings. “A family is a group of people related by blood, marriage, or adoption” ("Sociology Chapter 11 family and marriage"). Family comes in all different shape, form, and sizes. Family can be defined as two parents a mom and a dad working together to care for their children, or two dads or two moms raising their children. It can also be one dad or one mom nurturing and trying to provide for their children alone. It can be an adopted family with their children or grandparents taking the responsibility of rising their grandchildren. All these types of family have one common thing “love”. Whichever way you put it family is people you love and care for. One type of family that is becoming …show more content…
The parents may or may not then have children with each other” ("Definition of a Blended Family"). In recent year’s blended families has become the norm. “50% of the children in the U.S. are being raised in blended families” (Gracia). Blended families can occur when the parents decide to have a divorce, and then later on in life each of them decide to be remarried but to a different person, this person may or may not have children. This type of family can also occur by a death of one of the spouse and the remarriage of the other to a person with or without children. “60% of all …show more content…
Although having many relatives is beneficial, it sometimes can cause conflict. People tend to have different viewpoints and when adding more people, especially kids to a family conflict will occur because of so many different standpoints. Blended families may be well secured financially, better than single parent families. Disadvantages can still occur. More children in a family means more needs and wants. They would have to learn to share toys and clothes that could create conflict, disagreement, or argument between the kids. Not all kids in a blended family tend to accept their new parent. Some kids do not want that role model. When a parent wants to discipline the child for something wrong they did, the child might not take that very well causing them to say mean and harsh things to the parent. They might say “You’re not my mother!” or “You’re not my father!” This could also cause conflict not only between the parent and the child but also between the spouses. These disadvantages can all be managed if the parents learn how to address the properly. Respect and communication are the main ways to deal with problems that rise during parenting and for all types of families not just for blended