Since our earliest memories, our society has stressed the inherent value of the nuclear, biological, heterosexual family.
This semblance is held as the lifeblood of our culture, and its absence is used time and time again to mindlessly explain away social ills.
However, I am not convinced that the presence or absence of this structure alone can protect or break a family.
Today the broad landscape of the “American Family” is constantly evolving.
With this expanding definition of family, we are faced with two primary options.
Individually, we can either hold fast to tradition or embrace the changes our nation’s families are experiencing.
So as to prepare ourselves for a brighter and more positive tomorrow, I believe we should embrace the diversity of the current family life.
Cynthia Crosson-Tower, a child and family welfare academic, states that family is a group of people who live together or engage in regular contact that depend upon each other for some form of consistent support.
How a family shapes itself is dependent upon a variety of factors: social boundaries, culture, socioeconomic situations and — of course — the complex nature of intimate partnerships converging to form a family environment.
As divorce rates have risen, the number of blended families has climbed throughout the years.
More children live with a single parent or grandparent than ever before.
Additionally, after years of fighting for recognition and legal protection, nearly 2 percent of children in the United States have same-sex parents.
In my personal experience, all issues relating to family structure should be approached with warmth and an open understanding.
A parent’s best friend can serve as a legitimate uncle to a child, while a next-door neighbor could grow to become a child’s grandmother.
Today, who a family actively includes in daily life is more important than blood or legality.
Adoption is another hotly contested aspect of modern family life.
Much of our culture still holds “natural” childbirth and rearing above all other designs — after all, it’s “your blood.”
To a certain extent I can agree with this logic, as adoption is most certainly not meant for everyone.
I believe this is fine, and that individuals and couples considering adoption need to keep this in mind.
There is no shame in just admitting that adoption is not right for you and your family.
However, we must be careful not to shame the families that do adopt or seek alternative conception and birth measures.
Above all else, we must be sensitive and open to the ways in which families are forming around us.
If we are able to celebrate diverse and relative definitions of family, we have positioned ourselves to embrace a more inclusive future.
sjdickma@indiana.edu
