What Is Family? Essay Example

The most basic unit of organization in the society and noted as the primary source of common culture, this is the core definition of a family and the particular role that it plays in the community. Notably, such a definition creates a specific distinction on how families are considered as the basic source of social development. The culture that the family establishes becomes the core source of social structure, which also becomes the foundation of cultural conditioning among members of the society.

Most often than not, families are recognized to be under a structure. Specifically established by the joining of two individuals, the parents, and later on enlarged by the existence of the children. Each member of the family takes a role that defines their identifiable function in the unit. Fathers and mothers are expected to provide for the needs of their children while the children are expected to follow through the ground rules that their parents have set for them to recognize. Relatively though, this particular definition of roles between family members have been strongly opposed by several individuals who recognize the principles of liberalization as a particular form of stereotyping. This is the reason why the supposed setup of fathers being accustomed to working for the family and providing for their financial needs have already changed through time. Mothers are not only expected to stay home, deal with the house and take care of the children anymore. Instead, mothers are also taking charge of financial needs of the family, at some point, parents already take the role of each other in an exchanged position depending on how they are able to respond to the said situations involving family-defined functions.

Through the years, it could be identified too how the picture of family arrangement changes. Due to the changing demands of the society, there now exists some unconventional setup of families. One is that of a family that is headed by a single parent. Another is a structure that extends the immediate family to incurring more members from the extended connections of one of the members of the unit [perhaps coming from the mother side, the father side or both]. Lately, couples belonging to the same gender-orientation who decide to adopt children as their own have already been considered as a form of modern family as well.

What do these particular changes in the identification of a family tell about the society’s condition of understanding familial roles and function. As time changes, such condition of function and acceptance of role continues to develop as well. When it comes to family-arrangements, it does not matter anymore whether or not a unit follows the traditional or conventional way of family living. What matters is that the members of the said unit of organization in the society are able to take charge of the living condition that they have subjected themselves into. What is considered more important is the fact that learning from the past and the condition of living that families are accustomed to during those years create a strong indication on how families should follow a certain pattern that could better the manner by which they perform their roles properly.

As of today, family arrangements are better defined through the consideration and the cooperation that exists between its members. No member of a family can live along apart from the unit. This belief continues to fuel the process by which family members try the best they could to manifest a sense of support for each other. The bond that the members of the family share is somewhat different from all the others. It could be realized that with this bond, a person could fully identify himself as someone who belong to a certain group, which compensates the condition of emptiness every time one receives rejection from the society. True, the manner of behavior and characteristic that one develops in line with the familial arrangement and guidance he tends to get along with in the family becomes the foundation of who he is to become especially when he begins dealing with others outside of his family’s circle.