The Definition Of Family

Families have been around since the beginning of time, however the definition of family has changed quite a bit, especially in the past twenty years or so. The current definition of family is a group of people consisting of a mother, father, and children living together in the same house, but the effects of divorce, remarriage, and homosexuality have produced grounds for revising the definition. One major impact on families is divorce. First marriages result in a divorce forty to fifty percent of the time, and second marriages result in a divorce sixty percent of the time. When parents divorce, it results in any children that may have been a result of the marriage having to choose which parent they prefer would to live with, or their …show more content…
In the situation that one or both adults have children from previous marriages, it can cause a family to multiply overnight, coupling with the possibility that the remarried adults have kids together, it can metamorphose into a whole new aspect of confusing. Since the family would consist of stepparents, stepsiblings, and half-siblings, where not everybody is blood related, it can be the source of strain on a family relationship, especially if one parent’s kids receive more attention or are more spoiled than the other parent’s kids. Combining families can be strenuous in that the kids may have been accustomed to receiving a great deal of one on one time with their parent, but in the event that their parent got married, they would be required to share that time with their new stepparent and stepsiblings, if there are any. With this in mind, stepfamilies are becoming progressively more common, and about one third of Americans belong to a …show more content…
Since the legalization of same sex marriage in every state by the supreme court in June, 2015, parents can both be males or both be females, and same sex parents can even acquire children through adoption. Parents no longer are confined to being opposite genders. Homosexuals raise about four percent of adopted children in the United States, and thirteen percent of parents that are same sex parents have adopted a child. At first, there was some controversy that the children adopted by same sex couples would have some mental health issues, but research shows that no problems have been found that are directly related to same sex parents. Parent-child relationships are key to development, so if that parent-child relationship is good, then the child should acquire no development issues. Another problem that was considered was the child’s behavior would be affected and the child would identify with the sex of both of his/her parents, but this concern was also found to be false. Children with homosexual parents continue to play with toys and games specific to their