Family

    Family is defined as a group of parents and children living together.  This definition hurts me, it does not make me mad nor gives me a reason to historically change it, it just hurts me.  Even if I wanted to change it, I wouldn't be able to.  In this world we live in I might be ridiculed or threatened by somebody just because I changed a definition that has had its position for decades.
 
   When I don't like something or like the way its placed I move it.  Simple as that.  Therefore if i could change or move this definition, no better yet reform it, I would give it a meaning that actually has a feel to it.  The reason for this is because when I hear family I instantly think about my mom and dad that are back home 900 miles away.  I think about my brother that is 700 miles away, and i think about my bigger brother that is 600 miles away.  As you can imagine we are pretty far apart, but we are mentally and spiritually connected.  With this being said my definition goes like this: Family- People that are spiritually and mentally connected; not of the same parents, but someone that has grown together with time.  Sounds so simple and dumb and you are probably wondering who is this idiot.  Its okay that you think like that, its your human right to, but is it not true?  I know that my 6 person family is my genetically formed family, but what about my brother's wife, she is now part of us.  We have grown close to her.  What about their son?  He has grown close to us, he popped out of nowhere with different characteristics from all of us, but he is still family.  My mom and dad made me, so I am forced to be part of their family.  I was also socially and economically forced to live in my neighborhood, and that is where i met Mikey.  He was in the same economic and same social group as me, so we were forced to be family.  I have known him for 13 years now,so he is now my brother.  My little brother is only 11, so that means that a stranger that I grew up with has known me 1 year more than my genetically formed brother.  Ponder on that for a moment.
     There are a lot of families in this world, and they all fit into different social institutions.  Like families in America consist of two parents and their children, but families in African tribes consist of 2 or maybe more generations of people.  It is basically the same thing, but both families consist of different norms.  Like our everyday life here in America may consist of watching television for an hour, and that is not socially accepted in the African tribe.  It does not have to be accepted as we don't force 15 year old girls to marry the leader of our tribe, which would be a dad marrying the 15 year old neighbor down the street.  We do not socially accept that, and other cultures should not accept our norms either.
   The modern family is now changing, so we have to remove our 1980 social "lens".  As these "lens" make you see modern families in a variety of ways.  For example people are starting to marry a little later in life like at age 27 or 28.  They are starting to wait longer before having children.  In 1960 women ages 15-24 accounted for 40% of women with infants and in 2011 it dropped to 22% (Krogstad).  Also people in our social institution, which is America, might not frown upon a strong, independent women mother of two.  In another culture, however, through their social "lens", they see a weak, sorry excuse for a mother.  This might be difficult to deal with, but its true.  It is not only in one culture, rather than all the cultures, families, and social "lens" this world offers us, and I think that this is one of the reasons why each and every single family/culture is unique in its own special way.



   
Works Cited

Krogstad, J. (2014, April 30). 5 Facts About The Modern American Family. Retrieved September 18, 2015, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/30/5-facts-about-the-modern-american-family/