Read the following discussion and give your response:

Personally I define family as those who are closest to you. Those whom you can count on and trust with your life my family doesn’t consist of just blood relatives. According to our reading, my family would be considered a blended family. It consists of my father, my step mother, two brothers and two step brothers, which is the basic definition of a blended family (Hammond, Cheney, &Pearsey, 2015). I’ve noticed, when discussing this topic with my friends and co-workers, that not everyone sees family in the same perspective. It seems the older the generation, the more set they are on the thought that family is with whom you live. My grandmother, for example, considers the extended family to be her family. And growing up, that’s the way it was. It was very common for grandparents to live with the “nuclear family” (Hammond, Cheney, &Pearsey, 2015). However, my generation and younger seems to have similar feelings as I do about family not always being blood related. I believe that society defines family as nuclear, blended, or extended. Family is seen as one that is connected by either blood or marriage.

I feel that it should be socially acceptable to define family however you feel. I have friends that would do more for their closest friends than some family members just because of the relationship they have with said family member. I know I can attest to that. I may not have the best relationship with someone who society deems as a family member just because they’re blood related, yet would gladly stop a bullet from my bestest friend. Years ago it wasn’t like that, but everything is changing. Back then divorce was unheard of so blended families didn’t exist. I don’t see how different definitions could be harmful, unless it causes animosity between the family members themselves.