what does the word family mean to you essay

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The Meaning of Family to Me

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Published: Sep 19, 2019

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What does family mean for you, and how has it shaped you?

Thousand reflections by sandbox.

Gillian Rhodes

About Thousand Reflections: Sandbox is full of people from all walks of life and background. Here, we try to tap into this collective wisdom by offering a prompt bi-weekly and sourcing short responses from the members.

This week’s prompt

It all starts with the family, for better or for worse. We all have families, but we don’t all think of them in the same ways, and they have varying degrees of influence on what we become — sometimes aligned, sometimes not. Indeed, we don’t all define the word family in the same way.

For this first prompt we ask, what does ‘family’ mean for you, and by that token, how have your family customs/values shaped who you are now?

Shihab Uddin

Family for me means the ones who will be beside me no matter what happens, the most loved ones. The outer world loves me when I am strong and effective and dislikes me when I am weak and ineffective. Actually, some good friends also count as a family according to this description. Family are the people that stay beside me even in the toughest of times, the worst of the worst times, even whenever something is very wrong with me.

I grew up in a conservative Muslim family, which is maybe why I am such a shy person now. But because of it, we had a strong process of differentiating right and wrong. I think my family taught me this well.

My parents had strong confidence in me from childhood, although I disappointed them many times, such as not being able to bring the results they wanted, not working as hard as I should or lying about working when I wasn’t. But at the end of the day, when I went back to them and confessed I failed, they always gave me shelter and hope and showed me how to move forward.

Another big influence came from the fact that I was never forced to do anything. I was given many choices, and especially in terms of selecting career options and choosing what to do and how to do it, my family has always given me autonomy. They were supportive also in my studies. Sometimes if I woke up late or wasn’t able to study, I would get very angry at myself. But my father just told me, don’t waste time now weeping for it, study right now in the time you have.

I’m very grateful for this unconditional support, even up until now. When I quit my job two years ago to pursue a different career option, my mom was always there beside me supporting and continues to do so, even when I’m in the toughest situations. Vice versa, it’s also my full-time responsibility to take care of my family no matter what happens and I try to do my very best in this scenario.

I am privileged. Deeply, disgustingly privileged, because I was loved from the beginning. And not only loved, I was supported.

My parents didn’t have an agenda for me and my sisters. They just wanted us to become ourselves. If I wanted to start dancing, that was fine. When I wanted to quit, that was fine too. With gentle discussions and advice when I got too far off track, but for the most part, they just let me find me. Sometimes, that involved letting me do things they knew might scrape me up — but that I’d learn from. I wonder how they could know — and how I might know, when I have children — where that line is, between preventing your kids from getting hurt, and allowing them to learn by experience.

It was my father who told me that it was bullshit to do a second major just because it was safer than only studying dance. But he wasn’t just walking the walk — I watched him, from the time I was sixteen, leave his law practice and follow his heart. I watched his struggles, his triumphs, and I learned. He invited all of us to come with him in finding our own journeys, and me, my mother, and my two sisters have all tried to follow.

My family isn’t perfect. We fight. We get on each other’s nerves. My sisters and my parents have their own issues that I know only barely, and don’t participate in. But we’re family, bound by all our passions and determination. The word means something that can’t be expressed, and I have trouble to articulate it.

The greatest custom my family shares is storytelling. We tell each other stories, we tell our own stories, we write stories that don’t exist. It is the greatest gift I have received, and it bleeds into everything I do.

This is the first part on our June series on Family. If you enjoy this series, be sure to click the green heart to recommend and follow the publication so you never miss an issue!

Written by Gillian Rhodes

Dancer/choreographer causing magic and mischief somewhere in the world. Currently based in Lahore, Pakistan.

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Essay Samples on Family

This area of study will be relevant to students majoring in Education, Psychology, Healthcare, and Sociology. Those learners who must compose essays on family may deal with anything from legislation and divorce issues to domestic abuse and family relations all over the world. In case you are not able to provide an excellent paper on family, consider exploring your grading rubric again and think about something that inspires you. Think about family values and provide your readers with interesting facts or statistical information that is worth researching. When all else fails, take a look at our free family essay examples. These cover a wide range of subjects that will be suitable for educators, legal specialists, sociologists, and psychologists, among others. We even have case studies and family examples from famous literary works. Combine several examples as you compose your own to provide an even greater scope of a subject. Remember to provide citations for every idea that is not yours as a way to avoid plagiarism issues. When you explore our free family essay samples, see how to structure your writing by using the final part as a place to set a moral lesson or create a call to action.

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My Family: Exploring the Roots of Love and Unity

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A Reflection on What Family Means to Me

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Best topics on Family

1. How Does Family Influence Your Identity

2. Cause and Effect of Broken Family: Exploring the Impact on Individuals and Society

3. What Does Family Mean to You: A Lifelong Treasure

4. My Family: Exploring the Roots of Love and Unity

5. How I Celebrate Christmas: One Holiday, Two Celebrations

6. A Reflection on What Family Means to Me

7. Ethnographic Study Of One’s Family Origin

8. The Novel “Everyday Use” By Alice Walker: A Literary Analysis

9. My Experience Of Savoring Traditional Guatemalan Breakfast During The Family Visit

10. Semiotic Analysis Of The American Family Image In Family Guy

11. Mixing Reality with Dreams in Inception

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Five Stories That Redefine the Word Family

They share one important thing in common: Love.

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I LIVE IN MANHATTAN with two men—neither is my husband. In fact, they’re in love with each other. One is my best friend, Chris, whom I’ve known since we were 12, and the other is his partner, Curt; they’ve been together for three decades. When we were in our mid-30s, I was single and Chris was already with Curt. But we all wanted a child, which led to a plan: Chris and I would make a baby together. Not the traditional way—we did artificial insemination DIY-style, with help from a sterilized measuring cup, a homemade ovulation calendar, and a turkey baster.

.css-meat1u:before{margin-bottom:1.2rem;height:2.25rem;content:'“';display:block;font-size:4.375rem;line-height:1.1;font-family:Juana,Juana-weight300-roboto,Juana-weight300-local,Georgia,Times,Serif;font-weight:300;} .css-dqv6fo{margin:0rem;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;font-family:Juana,Juana-weight300-upcase-roboto,Juana-weight300-upcase-local,Georgia,Times,Serif;font-weight:300;letter-spacing:0.0075rem;text-transform:uppercase;}@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-dqv6fo{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-dqv6fo{font-size:2.375rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-dqv6fo{font-size:2.75rem;line-height:1;}}.css-dqv6fo em,.css-dqv6fo i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-dqv6fo b,.css-dqv6fo strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;} Chris said, 'I'm the father.' Then Curt said, 'And I'm the other father.'

After three months of trying, I got pregnant in August 2001. Chris and Curt were driving back from Fire Island, where they were renting a summer house, and I called to say, “You won’t be able to take that house next summer because we’re going to have a baby.” Lily was born in April 2002; when I was in the delivery room, someone asked Chris who he was. He said, “I’m the father.” Then Curt said, “And I’m the other father.”

Though we all lived in the same city, our apartments were 21 blocks apart, meaning Lily was shuttled back and forth constantly. After about ten months, we said, “This is crazy.” Everybody wanted to be with the baby, which meant we needed to live in the same place.

So a month before Lily’s first birthday, we moved in together. Amazingly, it wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable—probably because we’d known each other so long. And it didn’t hurt that Curt has a fabulous eye for decoration. (Although there were some disagreements about which diapers to choose and whether organic baby food was really healthier.) Two years later, we tried for another baby, but I had two miscarriages . It was just too emotionally painful, so we all agreed we’d adopt. That’s how we got our son, Luca, who was born in Ethiopia. Now five of us live in the same happy, chaotic three-bedroom apartment.

The kids call Curt “Papi” and Chris “Daddy.” One doesn’t take precedence over the other—both are their fathers. Conservatives say we’re going to turn the kids gay , but I always tell people you couldn’t do that if you wanted to. When Luca was 8, we took him to the gay pride parade, and he was like, “I’m not gay, I’m hungry, and I don’t want to be here.”

I know it all sounds pretty hip, but we’re just like any other family . I’m the control freak, and Chris is the disciplinarian. (He hates that I’ll make Luca a separate dinner if he doesn’t like what the rest of us are eating.) For the children, though, having three parents is phenomenal; they have two fathers who’ll toss around a baseball with them for hours on end and a mom who’ll let them stay up too late watching movies in bed with her.And I’m lucky, too—if the kids are driving me nuts, Curt will take them out for an hour to give me some peace, then come home with a bottle of red wine.

Still, our situation definitely confuses people. We were coming back from a family vacation in Costa Rica in 2013, and the customs officer didn’t understand why each of the adults had a different last name; one kid had mine and the other had Chris’s. So we started trying to explain: “She’s my daughter and they’re her fathers, and they’re a couple, and he’s adopted.” The guy just handed back our passports, shaking his head and laughing as he sent us through. He said, “You couldn’t make this up if you tried.” —Judith Timoll, as told to Molly Sims

I WAS ENGAGED MORE than a decade ago, but broke it off after an important realization: I was staying with him only because I wanted kids. I’d always been very committed to becoming a mom someday; I’d created my own business and developed a flexible schedule based largely on that objective. So when I said goodbye to my fiancé at 30, I decided that if I hadn’t met somebody I wanted to have a family with by 37, I’d go for it another way.

At 36 1/2, I was still single. At the same time, my parents were having marital troubles , and I wanted to encourage my mom to create some distance from her marriage. I made a proposal: She’d come live with me, I’d do IVF and have a baby, and she’d be my coparent . She moved in two weeks later. Then, while I was pregnant with my second daughter, Logan, we learned that my younger sister was seriously ill with pulmonary fibrosis , a rare disease that causes scarring and stiffening of the lung tissue—she’d need to be hooked up to an oxygen tank 24/7 and would be unable to work. So she moved in, too.

I call our place the sorority house.

We live in a five-bedroom colonial in a very traditional New Jersey suburb; nearly everyone on our street is a nuclear family or a retired couple. I call our place the sorority house because it really feels that way—I make eggs for all of us in the mornings, the three grown-ups watch The Bachelor on Monday nights, and we sing a lot of show tunes. My older daughter, Mischa, is in kindergarten, and though it’s sometimes tough for my sister to make the block-long walk, she’s out there to greet her niece at the bus stop in the afternoon as often as she can. She also comes up with little games to get the girls to eat healthy dinners and makes sure they know it’s okay to color outside the lines.

I never could’ve predicted that this would be my path; while my feelings about motherhood are steadfast, my thoughts on our arrangement depend on the day. Sometimes it feels pretty ideal—because I have so many hands on deck, I get to have a mom’s night out or work in the evenings and not scramble for a babysitter. Other days, it feels like the most confining thing I could fathom—three adult women living in very close quarters. I’ll call my girlfriends to chat while I’m waiting at the car wash because that’s a rare moment of privacy. I guess we’re somewhere on the line between completely bizarre and totally normal.

In our society, we’re not really raised to think that we’ll live with our siblings and parents as adults, although in a lot of cultures, that’s exactly what happens. It looks like Americans are headed in that direction, with kids moving home after college and grandparents moving into their children’s places instead of retirement communities. I guess you could say our little crew is on the cutting edge. —Emily Wolper, as told to M.S.

Relative Strangers

In 2014, Florida paralegal Donna Skora wanted something you can’t find on Amazon : grandkids. “I was looking for a way to spend time with children,” she says. “My daughter and I are very close, but she doesn’t have kids. And for complicated reasons, I haven’t seen my son and grandchild since 2013. I tried being a baby cuddler at a neonatal unit in our local hospital for almost two years, but it was tough to fulfill the minimum hourly commitment while working. I wanted to be able to give someone a grandparent’s love and attention, and I couldn’t.”

A growing online community is turning Facebook friends into family.

So in January 2015, Skora founded a Facebook group called Surrogate Grandparents USA , a place where strangers can potentially become much more. On the page, prospective grandparents across the country offer their services for book reading and cookie-making, while parents post photos of kids who need the kind of cheerleading, comfort, and butterscotch candies that only grandparents can provide. (Access to the group is by permission only; Skora reviews each membership request and encourages anyone meeting up IRL to do a background check beforehand.) Short bios and locations are shared, and if there’s interest from a compatible family, the two parties start messaging privately and take things from there. Currently, the group has more than 3,700 members.

Beyond fractured relationships, there are plenty of reasons people join. “Distance is a big one,” says Skora, now 63. “Those with family outside the country might look for someone local. And, of course, there’s death: People who’ve had a family member pass away say they’re searching for a relationship to help fill a void.”

Happy beneficiaries regularly post success stories: One woman praises a surrogate grandma’s weekly visits and homemade meatballs; surrogate grandparents show off photos of kid-centric trips to the zoo. “The success stories fill my heart,” says Skora. “And the dynamic serves both sides. I read that grandparents who babysit their grandchildren tend to live longer. Meanwhile, seniors offer kids knowledge and a connection to the past.”

The effect on Skora has been profound as well. “One premise of the group is healing through moving forward, and it’s served that purpose for me,” she says. At the moment, moderating the Facebook group nightly and holding down a full-time job means she can’t devote time to a surrogate grandkid of her own. But Skora looks forward to rectifying that after she retires. “Until then,” she says, “I feel like I’m the parent of a very large community, and I’m so proud of that.” —Molly Simms

MY MOM AND HER father moved to Salem, Oregon, in the summer of 1972, for his new job . That’s where she met my biological dad—I jokingly call it the “summer of love.” They were teenagers and together for only a few months. When they realized she was pregnant , he couldn’t commit to being a dad, so she moved in with her mom in Washington to have me. I was born when my mom was 17. My father met me as a baby, but by then, my mother was already with someone else, Dick, who didn’t mind raising another man’s child. She was too young, though, not ready to be a mother. She’d had a tough childhood and had turned out kind of rootless and wild. Eventually Dick got custody of me, which was fine—I’d always believed I was his biological daughter.

After Dick remarried, my being around just didn’t work anymore. So at age 7, I went to live with his parents, who’d always wanted a little girl. Every day they made me feel so cherished, so loved. Then, when I was about 10, they sat me down and told me the truth: that none of them were related to me by blood. I was horrified and confused—I remember thinking, What am I?

I never, ever gave up hope.

As a teenager, I became fixated on finding my biological father. I grilled my mother, and she told me everything she knew: His name was Brian Miller; he was from Salem; and he was “tall, dark, and handsome.” Then, when I was 24, my mom died. It was incredibly tough to lose her, yet I continued my hunt for my father, despite the fact that all I had was a common name and no birth date. This was pre-internet—I even tried psychics and detectives. It was unbelievably frustrating, but I never, ever gave up hope.

In March 2018, I took an Ancestry.com test in the hopes of learning a little more about my medical history. The results turned up something else: It was “extremely likely” they’d found a parent-child match. There was a location, Maui, and initials: B.M. Brian Miller. I was so nervous to call him. When I finally summoned the nerve to pick up the phone—after a pep talk from my best friend—I started by saying, “Hi. This is Nicki, and Ancestry says we’re related.” He replied, “Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you?” All I could do was sob.

The story came tumbling out: He’d been searching for decades, making fruitless cold calls, doing internet searches that went nowhere because my mom had changed her last name after getting married. But here we were. We started talking and texting several times a day. I was in the stratosphere—it was total euphoria, like finding the piece to a puzzle I’d been waiting most of my life to solve. My connection to him was visceral and soul-deep.

Three weeks after our first call, I flew to Maui to surprise him on Father’s Day. His girlfriend and daughter, my half sister, helped me plan it—I hid as we were driving up and crawled along the side of the house, so he wouldn’t see me through the giant picture window. As I walked through the front door, he was coming down the hall, and we locked eyes in person for the first time. He was speechless, with a giant grin on his face; in the video his girlfriend took, we’re giddy, hugging and laughing and crying all at once. My mascara is a mess.

I had father figures growing up, but when I met my dad in person, I finally appreciated the biological bond. I wanted to grab his hand and cling to him like a little kid, like Don’t ever go away again . I’m certain my mother had a hand in bringing us together somehow, and I’m just so thankful. Neither of us can tell this story without breaking into tears. —Nicole Fleetwood, as told to M.S.

I ALWAYS KNEW I WAS ADOPTED. Talking about it was never taboo; my mom would work the fact into my bedtime stories. But my parents waited until I was 7 years old to hand me a piece of information that stunned me. It was a Washington Post article dated September 6, 1988, about a newborn who’d been abandoned in a hospital bathroom. A janitor had come in with his mop and saw a bundle move on the floor. That bundle was me—clean, fed, and warm, but alone.

No security camera had captured an image of how I wound up there, so my birth mother’s identity was a mystery. I was put into foster care, and three months later, my parents adopted me. I grew up an only child, which occasionally annoyed the hell out of me. I’d get angry and complain,“Everyone else has a brother and sister—why don’t I?”

The site had found a relative who shared my DNA.

When 23andMe became popular, my husband encouraged me to try it. So for Christmas 2017, we both got the kit. When my results arrived, I was glad to have more info on my genetic makeup and some basic medical facts. But 23andMe wasn’t done. A couple of months later, I received an email: The site had found a relative who shared my DNA. When I logged on, there was a name, Sterling, highlighted in purple, and next to that it identified her as my half sibling—on my maternal side. I turned to my husband, frozen in shock.

My half sister was even more surprised: She was one of four siblings, none of whom knew I existed. They all were raised by our mom, who hid her pregnancy with me because it was the product of an affair while her husband was stationed abroad in the army. She gave birth, stuck me in a safe place, and was home in time for the 6 o’clock news.

She and I still don’t have a relationship, and my siblings are not in contact with her, either. I’ve forgiven her, but don’t plan to reach out. At this point, it’s up to her if she wants to reconnect. But I met my sisters and brothers for the first time last May. And though they were technically strangers, it wasn’t strange—these people look like me, sound like me, have my smile. We made a pact to see each other at least once a month, and we’ve stuck to it; we send video messages daily, and I vacationed with one of my brothers in Jamaica in September. We’re catching up on the past few decades of our lives—the prom stories and favorite movies —and trying to do it as quickly as possible so we can move forward and make memories together. Sometimes I still can’t process my joy: I woke up one morning an only child, and I went to bed the second youngest of five. —Sally Armstrong, as told to M.S.

Home Is Where The Foster Parent Is

When Davion Only’s story made national headlines in 2013, heartstrings across the country were forcefully tugged—the then 15-year-old had spent his entire life in foster care and had made a sorrowful plea at a Florida Baptist church: Adopt me. “I’ll take anyone,” he said. “Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple, I don’t care. And I would be really appreciative; the best I could be.” Roughly 10,000 families offered him a permanent home; his foster agency placed him with one in Ohio and everyone was utterly relieved—until the arrangement failed. “He was sent back to Florida, to ‘age out’ of the system,” says Connie Going, who had been the adoption administrator at the agency and known Davion most of his life. “When he called me and asked, ‘Will you adopt me, Ms. Connie?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’”

Going, 56, has spent more than 25 years working in the child welfare system, and Davion is one of two former fosters she’s adopted—when she adopted her son Taylor at age 12, he’d been in more than 47 homes. The boys are part of a speedily growing group: “There’s a desperate need for foster families right now,” says Going. “Because of the increase in opioid use and children being removed from homes by social services, they’re coming into foster care at higher rates than ever; they’re sleeping in offices.

Thousands of kids in the U.S. are waiting for families to take them in. Are you ready to change someone's life?

More than 120,000 foster children are waiting to be adopted.” While fostering may seem intimidating, Going says the challenges are nothing compared to the rewards. “I used to look at foster parents and think, I could never do that,” she says. “And yes, at moments, I’ve shut the bedroom door and cried. But I’m here to say that you can do this. If you have love in your heart and can offer unconditional acceptance, you will not fail.”

For those curious about the process, Going offers some sage advice:

• Immerse yourself. “Follow foster moms’ social media accounts (try searching #fostermom on Instagram), and join online forums about fostering (visit dailystrength.org or adoption.com ). If there’s an in-person informational or support group in your town, show up and ask questions.”
• Prepare to be patient. “To become a foster parent, you first must attend training classes. Next, a case manager comes to your house for an assessment and in-person interviews. The state does background checks, and then, if you’ve met all the requirements, you should get your foster placement. The process often takes around five months—in some states, longer. The barriers and safeguards are created with the kids’ well-being in mind.”
• Self-assess. “The ideal foster parent or parents should be stable in who they are. If you have a challenging family history that you’ve processed and overcome, you’ll likely understand the kids better. Some of the strongest candidates have parented before, like empty nesters.”
• Accept impermanence. “Around half of foster parents end up adopting, but there’s still a chance a biological family member could step back in at the last minute. The first goal in foster care is always reunification with the original family. And while I adopted my boys, they are not ‘mine’: I share them with their birth parents. I’ve even located those family members for them, because I knew it would help make them whole.”
• Emphasize empathy. “When kids act out, remember that it’s the result of trauma. Think about it this way: They’re so resilient and brave that they’re taking the chance to connect with another human being after everyone else has let them down. It’s our privilege to step in and make their lives better.”

ANYONE PASSING MY HOUSE at 7 a.m. on a typical weekday in 2014 might have wondered why a man in pajama pants was climbing my front steps with a package of sandwich meat in one hand and a blender full of fruit in the other. But for our family, this was morning as usual. The man sporting slippers and smoothie fixings? My ex-husband, Derek, simply crossing the driveway that separated our two homes to help get our kids off to school.

This was a post-divorce life we could reconcile.

When we split up in 2008, Derek and I managed the first year under the same roof, with him in our home’s basement apartment. But we struggled to devise a more permanent arrangement that wouldn’t distance either of us from our two boys, at the time just 6 and 2. Then, in a blessed bit of real estate serendipity, the house next to ours came up for rent. We hugged in relief. This, we figured, was a kind of post-divorce life we could reconcile—maybe even be proud of one day.

Being next-door neighbors for eight years meant our boys moved back and forth fluidly—no packing or commuting necessary. If a permission slip or baseball glove was left behind, a quick text was all it took to arrange delivery to either front porch. Visible from both kitchen windows, the basketball hoop out back was the midpoint between our homes. Their dad or I could call out good morning or praise a newly mastered jump shot, no matter which of us was technically in charge that day. Our adjoining backyards became a well-worn loop for our sons and their friends during epic water-gun battles and games of tag. We liked this arrangement so much that it continued for four years after Derek married Amy in 2013.

They moved a couple of blocks away in 2018, but not, as you might expect, because the grown-ups had tired of bumping into one another in bathrobes while fetching the paper. In our hot real estate market, the landlord decided to sell the place they were renting. Sure, there were times early on when I stood in the driveway waving a cheerful goodbye but noticing—with mixed feelings—how much like a family the four of them looked when departing for a weekend away. But those moments were far exceeded by all the bonus hellos our proximity allowed—and by how forgiving it was of our tendency to misplace coats, shoes, and retainers. Plus, we are a family now, the five of us, Amy included.

Today, we still cause confusion when all three parents show up to a weekend basketball tournament, but we’re fine with it. (My boyfriend, Ryan, and his son and daughter are yet more welcome additions to our lives.) No, this wasn’t what Derek and I imagined when we started a family, but we’re happy with our solution—and how we’ve put ourselves back together again, stronger than before. —Brandie Weikle, founder of TheNewFamily.com , a website that aims to document a thousand ways to be a family through its 1,000 Families Project and podcast

For the Record

Genealogist Crista Cowan has been fascinated by family history research since the mid-’80s, when she helped her dad enter info about their kin into the home computer. “That was all it took,” she says. “I was hooked.”

Unlock the secrets of your ancestors with keystrokes, DNA, and a dream.

Whether you’re hoping to untangle a mystery or get better acquainted with your foremothers, Cowan, who’s the corporate genealogist at Ancestry.com , says your first stop should always be a mail-in DNA test . But for an extra info boost, check out these sites she uses to fill in the blanks:

• Find a Grave : “A worldwide community that takes pictures of tombstones and cemeteries, then uploads those photos and transcribes what’s on the tombstone. There are more than 170 million searchable memorials containing details about birth dates, death dates, and burial locations.” ( findagrave.com )
• Fold3 : “A repository of military records from around the world: You’ll find everything from photos to enrollment cards.” ( fold3.com )
• Newspapers.com : “Small-town papers were the Facebook of their day. Search where your ancestors lived and get details on births, marriages, and deaths—and information about charitable acts, political and religious affiliations, and more. Information I’ve found here has helped me break through many research ‘brick walls.’” ( newspapers.com )
• RootsWeb : “One of the largest free genealogy resources on the internet. Check out the Family History Wiki, which contains guides to interpreting census and immigration records, and includes links to state archives, libraries, and other government repositories.”( rootsweb.com )

Becky Fawcett found her purpose after finding out she was infertile . “My husband and I adopted both our children,” she says. “I was actually in the delivery room when our son came into the world 13 years ago.” But given the legal fees, travel expenses, and state-mandated evaluations, the financial toll of that first adoption—about $40,000 in total—was massive. “It took every penny we had,” she says.“I said to my husband, ‘My God, we’re so lucky to have been able to make that work.’”

The nonprofit HelpUsAdopt.org gives hopeful families what they need, when they need it most.

Feeling compelled to give back, Fawcett, then a publicist, hunted for programs giving grants to aspiring parents, in the hope of doing some pro bono work. “But I felt totally defeated by the organizations I found,” says Fawcett. They often wouldn’t work with single or LGBT parents, or people in interracial relationships , and supported only one religious group. “I was pretty shocked at the lack of inclusivity. How can you tell someone they don’t deserve help because of the god they worship? Or their marital status? And what did that mean for the kids who’d be great family members if only the money was around?”

The most emotional moments are when people send me baby pictures.

Fawcett dove into online research; wrote up a business plan; and, in June 2007, sent out about 1,300 letters announcing her new nonprofit, HelpUsAdopt.org , which offers grants to all types of families. The idea clearly resonated, as she discovered a week later when she started receiving envelopes in the mail with checks inside—one for $15,000.

The organization has since awarded almost $2.6 million to nearly 300 families. Fawcett (who’s also the proud mom of a 9-year-old daughter) stays in touch with many of the families who’ve received grants. “The most emotional moments are when people send me baby pictures,” she says. “And last Mother’s Day, I wrote a Facebook post saying how grateful I was to my children’s birth mothers. One grant recipient commented, ‘I’m so grateful to read your story, Becky—without yours, I wouldn’t have mine.’ I get goosebumps just thinking about it.”

This story originally appeared in the March 2019 issue of O.

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What my Family Means to me

This essay about what my family means to me explores the profound impact of familial relationships on personal development and identity. It describes family as a source of unconditional support and security, providing stability in a rapidly changing world. The essay highlights how family has been instrumental in instilling core values such as honesty, integrity, and compassion, which are learned through daily interactions and modeled behaviors. Additionally, it discusses the role of family in connecting me to my cultural heritage and shared history, enriching my sense of identity and belonging. The essay also acknowledges the complexity of family dynamics, noting how they challenge personal growth through conflict resolution and understanding different perspectives. Overall, it portrays family as both a sanctuary of love and a catalyst for personal development, emphasizing its multifaceted influence on my life.

How it works

The notion of kinship occupies a distinctive niche in the fabric of human existence, sculpted by individual narratives and cultural contexts. To me, familial bonds transcend mere social constructs; they epitomize the bedrock of my resilience, identity, and principles. In this discourse, I delve into the manifold significance of my familial ties, pondering upon their profound influence on my psyche and worldview.

At its essence, my familial circle embodies an oasis of constancy and affection. Amidst the ceaseless flux and caprice of existence, family imparts a semblance of permanence and solace.

Across the continuum of my life, my kinfolk have served as steadfast pillars of emotional sustenance. Be it the jubilation of triumphs or the travails of tribulations, the unwavering solidarity of my family forms a safety net, emboldening me to embrace risks and pursue aspirations with fortitude. This camaraderie, far from being solely emotive, permeates the quotidian fabric of existence, from quotidian rituals to profound milestones, fostering a bond that is both comforting and enriching.

Moreover, family plays an instrumental role in shaping ethical mores and values. My familial milieu has been instrumental in imparting cardinal virtues such as probity, rectitude, and empathy. These values, far from being pedagogically disseminated, are imbibed through the crucible of daily interactions and choices. Witnessing my progenitors navigate moral quandaries or espouse altruism in the face of adversity has provided tangible exemplars of ethical comportment and empathy. As I traverse the corridors of adulthood, these precepts assume an increasingly indelible imprint upon my personal and vocational trajectories, informing my conduct and decisions.

Furthermore, family serves as a repository of shared heritage and ancestral lore, anchoring me to a tapestry of historical legacies that transcend temporal confines. The oral sagas passed down through generations and the cultural rituals we observe serve as conduits between antiquity and posterity. These traditions and narratives augment my comprehension of my lineage, furnishing me with a sense of lineage and affinity. They also serve as poignant reminders of the vicissitudes and victories of my forebears, proffering perspective and inspiration.

However, the influence of family transcends mere nurturing support, ethical underpinnings, and cultural inheritance. It constitutes a crucible for personal evolution and maturation. Familial dynamics, akin to any intimate rapport, are replete with intricacies and exigencies that compel me to confront my fallibilities, foster compromise, and cultivate forgiveness. Through the crucible of familial interactions, I glean the art of conflict resolution, the art of articulating sentiments cogently, and the art of embracing divergent perspectives. These aptitudes are invaluable, not only enhancing my interpersonal liaisons but also enriching my engagement with the wider cosmos.

In summation, the import of family to me is multifaceted and profound. It embodies a melange of affection and succor, values and legacy, trials and transformation. My kin have indelibly sculpted my identity and worldview, fashioning me into the individual I am today. In essence, family constitutes my lodestar amidst the vicissitudes of existence, furnishing both solace and stimulus for personal growth. As I traverse the labyrinth of life, the wisdom and warmth bestowed by my familial cadre will assuredly steer and sustain me, underscoring the enduring resonance of these cardinal bonds.

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Essay about Family Values & Traditions: Prompts + Examples

A family values essay (or a family traditions essay) is a type of written assignment. It covers such topics as family traditions, customs, family history, and values. It is usually assigned to those who study sociology, culture, anthropology, and creative writing.

In this article, you will find:

• 150 family values essay topics
• Outline structure
• Thesis statement examples
• “Family values” essay sample
• “Family traditions” essay sample
• “What does family mean to you?” essay sample.

Learn how to write your college essay about family with our guide.

• 👪 What Is a Family Values Essay about?
• 💡 Topic Ideas
• 📑 Outlining Your Essay️
• 🏠️ Family Values: Essay Example
• 🎃 Family Traditions: Essay Example
• 😍 What Does Family Mean to You: Essay Example

👪 Family Values Essay: What Is It about?

What are family values.

Family values are usually associated with a traditional family. In western culture, it is called “ a nuclear family .”

A nuclear family represents a family with a husband, wife, and children living together.

The nuclear family became common in the 1960s – 1970s. That happened because of the post-war economic boom and the health service upgrade. That allowed elder relatives to live separately from their children.

These days, the nuclear family is no longer the most common type of family. There are various forms of families: 

• Single-parent families
• Non-married parents
• Blended families
• Couples with no children
• Foster parents, etc.

How did the nuclear family become so wide-spread?

The nuclear family culture was mostly spread in western cultures. According to many historians, it was because of the Christian beliefs.

However, many people believe that Christianity was not the only reason. The industrial revolution also played a significant role.

Nowadays, the understanding of the term varies from person to person. It depends on their religious, personal, or cultural beliefs.

Family Values List

Cultural background plays a significant role in every family’s values. However, each family has its own customs and traditions as well.

Some common types of family values include:

• Having a sense of justice
• Being honest
• Being respectful to others
• Being patient
• Being responsible
• Having courage
• Participating in teamwork
• Being generous
• Volunteering
• Being respectful
• Featuring dignity
• Demonstrating humanity
• Saving salary
• Prioritizing education
• Doing your best at work
• Maintaining respectful relationships with coworkers/classmates
• Being caring
• Willing to learn
• Treating others with respect
• Being modest
• Family game nights
• Family vacations
• Family meals
• Being patriotic
• Being tolerant
• Following the law
• Being open-minded

💡 150 Family Values Essay Topics

If you find it challenging to choose a family values topic for your essay, here is the list of 150 topics.

• Social family values and their impact on children.
• Divorce: Psychological Effects on Children.
• Do family values define your personality?
• Toys, games, and gender socialization.
• The correlation between teamwork and your upbringing.
• Family Structure and Its Effects on Children.
• What does honesty have to do with social values?
• Solution Focused Therapy in Marriage and Family.
• The importance of being respectful to others.
• Parent-Child Relationships and Parental Authority.
• Political family values and their impact on children.
• Postpartum Depression Effect on Children Development.
• The importance of patriotism.
• Social factors and family issues.
• Is being open-minded crucial in modern society?
• Modern Society: American Family Values.
• What role does tolerance play in modern society?
• Does hard work identify your success?
• Family involvement impact on student achievement.
• Religious family values and their impact on children.
• Native American Women Raising Children off the Reservation.
• What does spiritual learning correlate with family values?
• Modest relations and their importance.
• The role of parental involvement.
• What is violence, and why is it damaging?
• Myths of the Gifted Children.
• Work family values and their impact on children.
• When Should Children Start School?
• Does salary saving help your family?
• Family as a System and Systems Theory.
• Why should education be a priority?
• Child-free families and their values.
• Family violence effects on family members.
• Why is doing your best work important for your family?
• School-Family-Community Partnership Policies.
• Moral values and their impact on children.
• Does being trustworthy affect your family values?
• Gender Inequality in the Study of the Family.
• Can you add your value to the world?
• Your responsibility and your family.
• Family in the US culture and society.
• Recreational family values and their impact.
• Balancing a Career and Family Life for Women.
• Family vacations and their effects on relationships.
• Family meal and its impact on family traditions.
• Children Play: Ingredient Needed in Children’s Learning.
• Family prayer in religious families.
• Family changes in American and African cultures.
• Hugs impact on family ties.
• Are bedtime stories important for children?
• How Video Games Affect Children.
• Do family game nights affect family bonding?
• Divorce Remarriage and Children Questions.
• What is the difference between tradition and heritage culture?
• How Autistic Children Develop and Learn?
• The true meaning of family values.
• Egypt families in changed and traditional forms.
• Does culture affect family values?
• Are family values a part of heritage?
• The Development of Secure and Insecure Attachments in Children.
• Does supporting family traditions impact character traits?
• Parents’ Accountability for Children’s Actions.
• Does your country’s history affect your family’s values?
• Do family traditions help with solving your family problems?
• Impact of Domestic Violence on Children in the Classroom.
• Does having business with your family affect your bonding?
• Family as a social institution.
• Different weekly family connections ideas and their impact.
• Different monthly family connections ideas and their impact.
• The importance of your family’s daily rituals.
• Group and Family Therapies: Similarities and Differences.
• Holiday family gatherings as an instrument of family bonding.
• Should a family have separate family budgets?
• Parental non-engagement in education.
• Globalization and its impact on family values.
• The difference between small town and big city family values.
• Divorce and how it affects the children.
• Child’s play observation and parent interview.
• Family fights and their impact on the family atmosphere.
• Why are personal boundaries important?
• Single-parent family values.
• Gender Differences in Caring About Children.
• Does being an only child affect one’s empathy?
• Grandparents’ involvement in children upbringing.
• Use of Social Networks by Underage Children.
• Same-sex marriage and its contribution to family values.
• Does surrogacy correspond to family values?
• Are women better parents than men?
• Does the age gap between children affect their relationship?
• Does having pets affect family bonding?
• Parenting Gifted Children Successfully Score.
• Having a hobby together and its impact.
• Discuss living separately from your family.
• Shopping together with your family and its impact on your family values.
• Movie nights as a family tradition.
• Parents’ perception of their children’s disability.
• Does being in the same class affect children’s relationships?
• Does sharing a room with your siblings affect your relationship?
• Raising Awareness on the Importance of Preschool Education Among Parents.
• Pros and cons of having a nanny.
• Do gadgets affect your children’s social values?
• The Role of Parents in Underage Alcohol Use and Abuse.
• Pros and cons of homeschooling.
• Limiting children’s Internet usage time and their personal boundaries.
• Is having an heirloom important?
• Divorce influence on children’s mental health.
• Is daycare beneficial?
• Should your parents-in-law be involved in your family?
• Children’s Foster Care and Associated Problems.
• Pets’ death and its impact on children’s social values.
• Clinical Map of Family Therapy.
• Passing of a relative and its impact on the family.
• How Do Parents See the Influence of Social Media Advertisements on Their Children?
• Relationship within a family with an adopted child.
• Discuss naming your child after grandparents.
• The Effects of Post-Divorce Relationships on Children.
• Discuss the issue of spoiling children.
• Discuss nuclear family values.
• Parental Involvement in Second Language Learning.
• Children’s toys and their impact on children’s values.
• Discuss the children’s rivalry phenomenon.
• Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act History.
• Relationship between parents and its impact on children.
• Lockdown and its impact on family values.
• Financial status and children’s social values.
• Do parents’ addictions affect children?
• Corporal punishment and its effects on children.
• Discuss step-parents’ relationship with children.
• Severe diseases in the family and their impact.
• Developing Family Relationship Skills to Prevent Substance Abuse Among Youth Population.
• Arranged marriages and their family values.
• Discuss the age gap in marriages.
• The Effects of Parental Involvement on Student Achievement.
• International families and their values.
• Early marriages and their family values.
• Parental Divorce Impact on Children’s Academic Success.
• Discuss parenting and family structure after divorce.
• Mental Illness in Children and Its Effects on Parents.
• Discuss family roles and duties.
• Healthy habits and their importance in the family.
• Growing-up Family Experience and the Interpretive Style in Childhood Social Anxiety.
• Discuss different family practices.
• Dealing With Parents: Schools Problem.
• Ancestors worship as a family value.
• The importance of family speech.
• Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter?
• Mutual respect as a core of a traditional family.
• Experiential Family Psychotherapy.
• Should the law protect the family values?
• Family as a basic unit of society.

Couldn’t find the perfect topic for your paper? Use our essay topic generator !

📑 Family Values Essay Outline

The family values essay consists of an introduction, body, and conclusion. You can write your essay in five paragraphs:

• One introductory paragraph
• Three body paragraphs
• One conclusion paragraph.

Family values or family history essay are usually no more than 1000 words long.

What do you write in each of them?

Learn more on the topic from our article that describes outline-making rules .

Thesis Statement about Family Values

The thesis statement is the main idea of your essay. It should be the last sentence of the introduction paragraph .

Why is a thesis statement essential?

It gives the reader an idea of what your essay is about.

The thesis statement should not just state your opinion but rather be argumentative. For the five-paragraph family values essay, you can express one point in your thesis statement.

Let’s take a look at good and bad thesis statement about family values templates.

Need a well-formulated thesis statement? You are welcome to use our thesis-making tool !

🏠️ Family Values Essay: Example & Writing Prompts

So, what do you write in your family values essay?

Start with choosing your topic. For this type of essay, it can be the following:

• Your reflection about your family’s values
• The most common family values in your country
• Your opinion on family values.

Let’s say you want to write about your family values. What do you include in your essay?

First, introduce family values definition and write your thesis statement.

Then, in the body part, write about your family’s values and their impact on you (one for each paragraph).

Finally, sum up your essay.

Family Values Essay Sample: 250 Words

🎃 Family Traditions Essay: Example & Writing Prompts

Family traditions essay covers such topics as the following:

• Family traditions in the USA (in England, in Spain, in Pakistan, etc.)
• Traditions in my family
• The importance of family traditions for children.
• My favorite family traditions

After you decide on your essay topic, make an outline.

For the introduction part, make sure to introduce the traditions that you are going to write about. You can also mention the definition of traditions.

In the body part, introduce one tradition for each paragraph. Make sure to elaborate on why they are essential for you and your family.

Finally, sum up your essay in the conclusion part.

Family Traditions Essay Sample: 250 Words

😍 What Does Family Mean to You Essay: Example & Writing Prompts

The family definition essay covers your opinion on family and its importance for you.

Some of the questions that can help you define your topic:

• How has your family shaped your character?
• How can you describe your upbringing?

In the introduction part, you can briefly cover the importance of family in modern society. Then make sure to state your thesis.

As for the body parts, you can highlight three main ideas of your essay (one for each paragraph).

Finally, sum up your essay in the conclusion part. Remember that you can restate your thesis statement here.

What Does Family Mean to You Essay Sample: 250 Words

Now you have learned how to write your family values essay. What values have you got from your family? Let us know in the comments below!

❓ Family Values FAQ

Family values are the principles, traditions, and beliefs that are upheld in a family. They depend on family’s cultural, religious, and geographical background. They might be moral values, social values, work values, political values, recreational values, religious values, etc. These values are usually passed on to younger generations and may vary from family to family.

Why are family values important?

Family values are important because they have a strong impact on children’s upbringing. These values might influence children’s behavior, personality, attitude, and character traits. These can affect how the children are going to build their own families in the future.

What are Christian family values?

Some Christian family values are the following: 1. Sense of justice 2. Being thankful 3. Having wisdom 4. Being compassion 5. Willing to learn 6. Treating others with respect 7. Modesty

What are traditional family values?

Each family has its own values. However, they do have a lot of resemblances. Some traditional family values are the following: 1. Having responsibilities to your family 2. Being respectful to your family members 3. Not hurting your family members 4. Compromising

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How to Write an Essay On “What Does Family Mean to Me?”

• What does family mean to me

Outline example

How to start an essay on family importance, how to write the thesis statement, need a custom essay, how to write body paragraphs, how to conclude an essay on the meaning of family, revision tips, what does family mean to me.

I. INTRODUCTION

• Introduction sentence
• Thesis statement
• Background information about the family

II. BODY PARAGRAPHS

• Paragraph 1 : a) Justify why the family is important; b) Share some of the personal experience within the family.
• Paragraph 2 : a) Supporting the thesis statement; b) Details about the meaning and the importance of a family.
• Paragraph 3 : The third supporting point about the importance of family.

III. CONCLUSION

• Restating the thesis statement
• Summarizing the main points
• Making the final, conclusive sentence.

The first part is an introduction, in the first paragraph, the author informs the reader about the topic. Introduction enables readers to be aware of what the writing is about. The author needs to establish the essay context and develop a framework that will enable him to approach the topic in a logical manner. Consider the following tips when writing your introduction:

• Make sure you have all your research done before you start writing.
• Make sure that your thesis statement is strong and can withstand scrutiny.
• Try and keep the thesis statement to one sentence – two at the absolute most.
• The introduction should be focused on keeping people interested since it is the first time anybody has seen your argument.
• Keep an introduction minimal – it should not contain any arguments in it.

For example, when starting an essay about what does family mean to me, the following can be a good introduction:

“No one can deny that family is the foundation of society, a family is where we start our life journey. The family shapes us and helps us grow to achieve meaningful goals throughout our lives. When we talk about family, what comes to our minds is a group of related individuals, including children, parents and other relatives. Everyone defines family differently, however, the significance of the family is the same. The family is the most important feature in one’s life. For me, my family means everything, I can always turn to my parents and my siblings for help and affection..”

Writing a thesis statement requires you to boil down your argument into one single idea. Most people wait to write their thesis statements until they have finished their research for this reason. Writing a statement is best done when all the research is done (and some people wait until the entire work is written), and then formulating the statement from that. Here is an example of the thesis statement

“The family shapes us and helps us grow to achieve meaningful goals.”

After introducing the topic, the following paragraphs of the essay present the essay body with a detailed description of the topic. The body can be divided into three paragraphs, depending on the type of essay. The body part explains, describes and supports the thesis statement about the importance of a family. The author presents the main ideas in the essay body. A writer needs to organize his ideas in different sections to enable the audience to follow through. Tips for writing body paragraphs prepared by essay writing service :

• Each paragraph deals with one specific argument – don’t overburden yourself.
• Make sure you have just enough research to fill the paragraph, but not so much that you get confused by what you are writing.
• Make sure the body paragraphs are in a logical order which will lead people to agree with your argument for the entire essay.
• Your body paragraphs should only deal with the arguments they are trying to make – don’t get distracted.
• Make sure that each paragraph has a topic sentence and a concluding sentence.

The first paragraph discusses the initial importance of family, in the most general terms. The second paragraph describes more details about the importance of a family, while the third focuses on why exactly that importance should be treasured.

“My family is one of my greatest pillars, my parents and my siblings influence my thoughts and behavior through their actions. My family values have greatly affected my behavior. My parents always encourage us to help those in need.”

The second paragraph provides more details about the importance of a family.

“Being able to rely on my family is another reason why the family is important. The first people I turn to when I feel discouraged or feel happy are my parents and my siblings. I share with them my joy, sorrows, achievement and major milestone in my life.”

The third paragraph can be as follows:

“I believe that blood is thicker than water, parents and siblings are always supportive and always use cordial words to encourage good behavior. For me, the family is the pillar of society, this gives it a bigger value, living in a good society depends on family structure. If the family offers adequate support, the society will be peaceful and stable.”

After presenting to the audience the importance of a family, the author needs to sum up the essay by restating the important points. Conclusion presents the final say on the issue being discussed in the paper. The author synthesizes his thoughts to demonstrate the significance of the topic and present the audience with a new view of the subject. The conclusion gives the author an opportunity to make a good lasting impression. When concluding the topic about what does family mean to me, the following can be a good conclusion. Tips on conclusion writing:

• Remember to restate the thesis statement.
• Bring everything together into one final argument.
• This is your final chance to persuade people to your point of view.
• The conclusion should not contain any original arguments – it should only restate and draw together your previously made arguments.
• Any good conclusion should reiterate the extraneous information given in the introduction, to remind any readers about it.

Below is an example of how you can write your conclusion:

“I can’t imagine living without my family because my family is my future and it is the essence of the society. The family shapes us and helps us grow to achieve meaningful goals throughout our lives. To sum up, I believe that everything we do revolves around the family. My family to me is my parents, relatives, and friends. “

Revisions are very important, as this is the way that you get the best possible essay out of your writing. Revision is best done over several points, to make sure that you aren’t overwhelming yourself with the things you need to look out for.

• Edit once for grammar and spelling, and then again to make sure that the structure is correct.
• Make sure to pay attention the bibliography.
• This is your last chance to make sure that the argument flows logically; make it count!
• Try and give yourself some time away from the essay, to make sure that you are seeing it through fresh eyes. If you can’t do this, try and get someone else to look at your work.
• Make sure that your thesis statement matches up with the arguments you are making in the essay proper.

What is the Family? Definition Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Critical analysis, reference list.

In the human perspective, a family is a group of persons connected by kinship, compassion, or sharing of residence. In a number of societies, the family is the basic unit for the socialization of children. A basic family unit is made up of a father, mother, and children, and is known as a nuclear family, however, this unit can be extended to include other relations to be known as an extended family.

The concept of the family has undergone a transformation and in today’s society, many people define the family structure as an arbitrary cultural set-up, a statement could be partially true. In ancient times, the family was a closely-knit, patriarchal clan consisting of a man, his wife or wives, and several children!

This has changed to include a monogamous parent taking care of the children. Besides, certain concepts of the family have broken with tradition within specific communities while some have been implanted through migration to thrive or else disappear in the new communities and societies.

Current debates and interest concerning the family have forced individuals to reassess themselves in a society driven by change and uncertainty. Because of its intricate nature, sociologists have not succeeded in coming with a universal definition of what family is and how is constructed. Rather, the definition is subject to individual interpretation and depends on the value a person attaches to being a member of a communal social group.

The aim of the paper is to give a concise definition of family, and the context of family structures such as the traditional family; single parent family, blended family and cohabiting relationship families. The paper also examines the influences that have progressively shaped the concept of family from the past to the present day.

A family is generally defined as a group of individuals who are linked by kinship or adoption, and who have a common residence. (Germov and Poole, 2011, 132). Kinship ties are connections or associations that link individuals through genealogy lines or marriage.

However, a few writers disagree with this concept. For instance, George Murdock, an American anthropologist, defines family as a social group that lives together, support each other economically, and raise children (Germov and Poole, 2011, 128).

In the mid 20 th century, sociologists defined family as a man living together with his wife and children, joined by blood, marriage or adoption. The couple had sex, procreated, and cared for the children jointly, besides bringing resources such as money and food together. The family members also guarded and supported each other.

Again, some writers have given a different perspective. Some asserted that previous definitions of the concept of the family should be altered as they are founded on ‘monolithic’ models that exhibit partiality towards a specific kind of family typified by gender discrimination and legal attachment, instead of gender fairness and patterns of care or emotional response.

Besides, modern reproductive methods have changed family associations and the definition of terms such as ‘mother’ and ‘father’ gas considerably changed. For instance, women past their menopausal age can now have children through surrogate mothers. Consequently, an increasing number of studies are focusing on what really defines a family. This perspective overlooks the gender inclination of the couple and the legitimacy of the relationship, and centers rather on the patterns of caring and affection.

The concept of the family has been conventionally related to the traditional family setup, which can be defined as a relationship in the children live with both the biological parents with the father often at work while the mother stays at home (Germov & Poole, 2011, 128). Today less than ten percent of families satisfies this principle.

The second approach is that of single parent setup in which the child resides with one of the parents, and may result from death, divorce, separation, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, or a nonunion pregnancy. Milstead and Perkins (2010, para. 8) recognized that teenage mothers were less likely to enter marriage and preferred to care for the child without paternal help leading to certain social and economic deficits for both the mother and child including lack of proper education, poorly paying occupations, reliance on welfare, and bad health for both of them.

The third approach is that of a blended family, in which the child lives with one of the biological parents, and that parent’s partner. This type of family may also include children born to the new couple. This family setup is made up of children, one of the biological parents, and a stepparent (Kinnear, 2010, 8). Even though the availability of another adult may lead to more material and financial resources, studies indicate that such children may be more disadvantaged than those living in stable single-parent families. In fact, children living in blended families have a higher likelihood of suffering emotionally and/or psychologically than those in single parent families.

The fourth perspective is that of a cohabiting relationship, in which a child lives with one of the biological parents, and that parent’s significant other, however, in contrast to blended families, the adults are not married. This type of family has been on the rise and a possible explanation could be that couples take it as a good practice before marriage. In contrast, Joltes (2007, para. 2) notes that those who have cohabited are more likely to divorce than those who have not. Cohabiting families regularly create less defined family roles, lower levels of parental support, supervision and involvement, and more conflicts (Kinnear, 2010, 8).

In contrast from the family setups described above, the traditional family is characterized by a unit comprising of a married couple with two or more children. In this setup, the male adult is the head of the house and the breadwinner too, while the female adult performs household tasks and cares for children and her husband.

Back then, the gender roles were clear. Most (preferably all) members of the family attended a church service weekly. Children were obedient, respectful and responsible. Families resided in the same town, or at least close to each other. Instances of divorce were an abomination and were very rare. Unmarried couples were uncommon too, and the act was thought of as shameful (Briggs, 2002, 5).

The number of unmarried adults was very low. The 1950s was a period when everybody worked together towards a common goal; society was stable or improving, and disagreements extremely rare. Women were satisfied with their housekeeping roles and respected their husbands as the house heads. Similarly, it was generally accepted that homosexuality, divorce, sex before marriage, abortion, and illegitimate birth did not exist, or occurred only to ‘bad’ families. Indeed, such issues were never conversed in an open forum.

For instance, women living in Australia in the 1950s had their lives centred on family and housekeeping tasks. Women who held wartime jobs were supposed to quit their jobs to create opportunities for men who had previously been in war. Consequently, women quit their jobs and returned to their housekeeping tasks. However, a few women challenged these norms and retained their jobs, but were paid less than men for similar jobs and were often given lowly paying jobs.

The practices in the traditional family have transformed significantly, and it is unlikely that we will ever switch back to the conventional nuclear family as the only ideal type of family. For the near future, the new family setup is here to stay. The ‘cereal packet’ image of the family comprising of the father, mother, and the children joyously having breakfast together is a bad reminder of how single-parent, blended, extended, same-sex, or childless families have considerably dented the idea of a perfect family.

Add this to the effects of the multiplicity of ethnic and cultural origins, aboriginal Australians and post-war migrations, and all Australians will finally encounter family forms quite dissimilar from their own. In Australia, as in many societies, the nuclear family setup is no longer conventional.

Towards the end of the 20th century, major demographic changes had affected even the family setup. Societies were aging while the number of children and youths was diminishing. These anomalies led to a shift in roles that today challenge the traditional family setup.

Today, families may comprise of couples who may be married or cohabiting, and have a child who is either a co-resident. A new form of family setup emerged in the 21st century, as mentioned by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck. The two sociologists write that from the mid 70s onwards, significant changes occurred in family life and relationships; marriage rates were failing, divorce was on the increase, and fertility rates dropping. According to Saggers and Sims (2004, 34), these changes marked the end of the family.

While often referred to as a ‘haven in a heartless world’, the fact is that families cannot be insulated from the world of which we are a component. In fact, change in the family stricture has always been inherently linked to wider social changes. As society undergoes swift, turbulent and far-reaching changes in economic, cultural and political aspects, family keeps pace with the changes (Saggers and Sims, 2004, 32).

The family, as we once knew it, has undergone rapid transformations and is today a shadow of its former self. Previously unacceptable behaviors such as homosexuality and same-sex families are now welcomed in the family. Consequently, these unnatural acts have further deteriorated the family by causing same-sex families, which raises important sociological questions about the actual meaning of the term ‘family’.

Secondly, the rising number of women in the workforce has altered the basic roles of members of the family. Divorce and separation, once abhorred, is now a normal affair. Indeed, parental divorce disrupts the lives of almost one in five Australian children. Cohabiting has also found its way into the modern family, and this has resulted into a popular and often quoted belief that the Australian family is disintegrating.

While the social construct of the family has evolved to cater for the social pressures of modern life, the values attached to it are perhaps more enduring. While the concept of the family is multifaceted, perhaps it comes down to the individuals belonging to any particular family group, who seek the similar values of belonging and compassion that offer a true definition of what a family is.

Briggs, Freda. 2002. The changing family, from Children and Families : Australian Perspectives , Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Joltes, Richard. 2007. Critical Enquiry: Family Values . Web.

Kinnear, Pamela. 2002. New families for changing times . Discussion Paper No 47. Web.

Milstead, Kayla & Perkins, Gerra. 2010. Family structure Characteristics and academic success: Supporting the work of school counsellors. Academic Leadership, Vol 8, issue 4. Web.

Poole, Marylin & Germov John. 2011. Public Sociology, An introduction to Australian Society , 2nd edition, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Saggers, Sherry and Sims, Margaret. 2004. Diversity: Beyond the nuclear family , Edited by Marilyn Poole, Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

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What Family Really Means

By Frank Bruni

• Oct. 24, 2015

MY friend Elli has never given birth, never adopted, never taken primary responsibility for an infant, a toddler or an adolescent.

But on the far side of 65, she finds herself playing the role of mother.

At the beginning of each school year, she’s likely to be helping one of her college-age boys move into his freshman dorm. At the end, she’s at a commencement, beaming as another of her boys finishes his four years and receives his diploma.

The boys are from Zimbabwe, where Elli has spent extensive time over the last decade and where she met many poor, bright teenagers determined to study in America.

She not only guided them through the application and financial aid process, but also remained one of the central figures in their lives.

And they became essential to her. They’re always calling and emailing. She’s always calling and emailing back. They consult her about the summer internships in their sights; they confide in her about new romances. And on holidays, they converge at her house to be fed and fussed over.

By any definition of the word that matters, she and her kids are a family.

And they kept coming to mind as I read about a gathering of more than 250 Roman Catholic leaders in Rome over the last three weeks for what’s been called the Synod of Bishops on the Family.

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What does Family mean to me and to you

Nellie Kerrison

15 May 2019

International day of families – 15 May 2019

A little over a year ago, my second book ‘ Family ’ was released into the world. It felt, what I imagine it might feel a little like if one of my girls was going off travelling for the first time. Setting off into the big wide world – I am aware this is only a breath away and the thoughts and feelings that are stirred up are very real. Will they be safe? Will people be kind? How do their roots aid them? How deep is the faith / my trust? Have I done all I possibly can to prepare them for this?

The title Family has been confusing for some (as in the title of my cookbook but also for the word itself). If you open the pages or read the introduction, you will soon learn that there is so much more to a title. In many cases, there is the assumption that this book’s focus is for a busy family with children still at home. This is true in many aspects but not at all exclusively. There is so much more on offer. This second book is filled with versatile and time-saving recipes for all people at all ages and stages that can be shared with who they personally think of as ‘family.’

There has been such kind and generous feedback of this book since its release. Feedback and stories that honestly, make me get a little teary…in a ‘high-fiving-of-my-tribe-kind-of-way.’

One of the most unexpected blessings since its release has been the conversations shared with me about family: Who do people see as their family? What does family mean to each of them?

As I write in the book, I’ve learnt that the word ‘Family’ means something different to everyone.

In celebration of International Day of the family (today), I opened the branches to a handful of the people around me and asked them what family means to them. Many of these people are family to me – blood or otherwise – and I thank them so much for sharing their thoughts and feelings. Many of these bought me to tears. Upon reading these, I love the fact that family can also mean ‘raw.’

Enjoy the read.

What does Family mean to you?

Family is where I feel a solid sense of belonging. Where I feel such powerful and unconditional love despite my shortcomings (and sometimes because of them). My family are my force field. They are the people that love and support me. They are my tribe and my network. Family can extend beyond bloodlines and last names. They are the people who join us on this wonderful journey of life.

“That’s simple – everything!”

Michael Kerrison

“My family reaches far and wide. They are related by birth, they are close friends, they are young people who may need a little mentoring, they are the inspiring women I work alongside daily who keep me on track, they are the incredible women I have the privilege of working with at Relish Mama, Four Pillars and SisterWorks. I am also lucky enough to have a beautiful husband and son who are my world. Family is what holds me together and keeps me going.”

Caroline Gray

“An unspoken and unconditional commitment to love, support and nurture another.”

Ann-Marie Brereton

  “I think of my family as my tree of life. They are what keeps me alive. A family tree is more than the ancestors written on a piece of paper, marking the history of my family. They are like a living & breathing oak tree. They are all the branches spread wide, signifying that we are spread across suburbs, towns, countries but the roots deep down in the earth. My Mum & Dad are the roots. All of the different colours in the leaves; every one a little different from the other. We are part of the same living organism, but we are all individuals. Then there are the nobbly bits on the trunk; a bit ugly sometimes but still a part of the whole tree. As a whole, living thing, it is beautiful to look at, it provides shade (protection) from things that sometimes aren’t so great, and yet it is always connected to the earth.”

Catherine Lancaster

I’ve experienced family in different forms. I have a biological family full of love & support. Since emigrating ‘my own’ family far from ‘home’ we have created another family where ex pats have bonded together & become each other’s surrogate family. Looking out for each other, giving, caring. I have a close church family where values are shared. In essence, to me family whether related or not is being a part of something. It’s belonging.

Family is our centrality of being. It’s where it all begins. We ride the highs and lows together, good times and bad. We celebrate and grieve and grow together. Family is our core.

My idea of family has changed a little over the last 5 years.  Of course, my core family are the kids, myself, my parents and my brothers and their beautiful families.  What has become very evident to me, is that my family is far more wide-reaching than just this core group.  I have found over the years that my closest friends are also very much a part of my family and without them, I would be lost and lonely.  My “family” are unwavering in their support of the children and me, they are non-judgemental, they are invested and interested in our lives, they love us unconditionally, they are steadfast in good and bad times, they are forgiving, patient and their love is never-ending.  We make each other laugh and cry, we drive each other crazy and help each other calm down, we challenge each other to be the best family we can be. My family is big and much appreciated, as I wouldn’t be where I am without them.

Sally Gittus

It means to back up the ones you love. ALWAYS be there for them. ALWAYS have their backs. put them before everything xxxxxxxxx

Ettie Kerrison

  “After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”

Oscar Wilde as put forward by Marta Skrabacz

“Love and Family are patient, they are kind. Love and Family do not envy, they do not boast, they are not proud. Love and Family does not dishonour others, they are not self-seeking, they are not easily angered, they keep no record of wrongs. Love and Family does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”

An adaptation of the Corinthians – contributed by Alida Mercuri who says she adores the passage and has added the word family beside the word love.

“Family is anyone with who you share blood… or wine!”

David Tenenbaum

“Family are the people you can trust with anything. They are your support system, and they take care of you. They will tell you the truth even if it hurts. “

Ava Kerrison

Family means: just being together in a safe, warm, and unconditional way.

Rachael Mullin

“Family means everything to me. No matter whether the family members live under one roof or not, it’s that special connection that keeps family together always, family is not always blood relationship. “It means to back up the ones you love. ALWAYS be there for them. ALWAYS have their backs. Put them before anything and everything. “

Gangani Marapana

• Family , internation day of families
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Expanding the definition of family to reflect our realities

Associate Professor of Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University

Disclosure statement

Shannon Hebblethwaite receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et Culture (FRQSC), the Fondation Luc Maurice, and TELUS Health.

Hilary Rose does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Concordia University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

Universitié Concordia provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA-FR.

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The second Monday in February is Family Day in parts of Canada. Started in Alberta in 1990 , four additional provinces celebrate Family Day: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick. (Other provinces have holidays reflecting their heritage.)

Québec is one of few jurisdictions that does not have a civic holiday in February, though the province has generous family leave policies .

This year, to coincide with the emphasis on family, Concordia University and the Vanier Institute of the Family are hosting a conference on families and family life on Feb. 20. The conference will explore some of the tensions and dichotomies embedded in families. For one, how do we define what family means?

Expanding the definition of family

How we define family (and who gets to do that defining) is an important starting point for conversations on family life. Who’s in? Who’s out? Who actually counts as family? For some, family means married parents with children, or married heterosexual parents with children. For others, it may mean a chosen family, or a cohabiting couple with no children.

For our conference, we are using an adaptation of the Vanier Institute’s definition : a family consists of any combination of two or more people, bound together over time, by ties of mutual consent and/or birth, adoption or placement, and who take responsibility for various activities of daily living, including love.

Our research has identified the need to attend to extended families , including grandparents, aunts and uncles. It also includes the need to extend the definition of family to non-traditional family forms including LGBTQ2S+ families, chosen families, multi-generation families that include grandparents, single parents and people living alone.

It wasn’t until 2001 that Statistics Canada gathered information on multi-generational households, and in 2011 the census first counted stepfamilies and foster children. Families in Canada are diverse and our programs and policies should be responsive to this diversity.

We find that a narrow definition of family can neglect the experiences of single-parent, poor and minority families . For example, research shows that women of colour and low-income women often experience and interpret motherhood differently than white, class-privileged mothers.

Recently, researchers began to examine how diversity related to race, class and sexual orientation affects grandparent-grandchild relationships. To continue to expand our understanding of families’ experiences, we need to think more broadly about what factors matter in families.

Family realities should be reflected in policy

How we define family impacts social policy like parental, maternity and paternity leave entitlements and child-care tax credits . Caregiver benefits and compassionate leave policies are also tied to family status . Eligibility depends on whether you are a family member.

In health-care contexts, visitors in intensive care units and emergency departments are often restricted to immediate family and grandparents often don’t have rights when it comes to child custody cases. So a comprehensive definition of family influences how we develop programs for families and who is eligible.

Besides needing to expand the definition of family, we also need to look at the messy realities of family and family life. The irony of organizing a public family conference while attending to the realities of our private family lives was not lost on us. As we scheduled meetings and conference calls, we were also planning Skype dates, making school lunches and caring for parents across the country.

We believe that practitioners, service providers and policy-makers need to take into account the complexity of family lives when thinking about family practice, programs and policies. Family scholars and the Vanier Institute of the Family refer to using a family lens: needing to look at the complexity of family and family relations beyond individual family members.

Thinking about families in a broad sense when we develop programs and policies can be challenging. It is much easier to use an individual lens to think about developing children, or aging seniors. But these individual family members, even those who live on their own, live out their lives in the context of families —whether biological or social.

The future of families

When using a family lens, it can be easy to slip into a glass-half-empty approach. Family life educators and social workers struggle with the tension between deficit models of family, and asset or strength-based models of family. Instead of only focusing on what problems families experience, we can benefit from understanding what strengths they have and what makes them resilient in the face of life’s challenges.

Some family practitioners and family scholars would say that in the best of all possible worlds, it would be preferable to remain apolitical as we think about family and as we provide information and assistance to families.

And yet, some of us feel strongly that it is important to look beyond families to society to advocate on behalf of families, or family members, who are at risk.

At our families conference we will be exploring the tension between present and future. Based on our understanding of systems and systemic change, we will emphasize envisioning a different future by including all families — in the broadest sense.

Rather than staying focused on the present, we look towards a future of change by asking the question: “Wouldn’t it be great if …?”

• Sexual orientation
• Social work
• Grandparents
• women of colour

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What does family mean to you.

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             What does family mean to you? This question, as simple as it might sound, is one that can bring out a wide range of answers and opinions. Because of this self-defining concept, your family will always be different from the one next door. Healthy communication is one of the most vital attributes a family can possess. Without communication, one would not have the opportunity to establish relationships or understand the emotions of others. Another key concept that is seen within the family, are the different roles that family members take. These roles can be influenced by gender, society, or individual personality. I have chosen two articles that exemplify how two women have crossed the barriers of societal influence to create their own role in their families. In this paper I will show how one woman naturally assumed the role of a more predominant figure, in comparison to her husband, and how another woman was forced to assume certain fatherly responsibilities. .              The first article that was used came from March 17, 2003's issue of People Magazine. The article is titled, "Family First," and it explains how Mary Matalin, who is an "ex-White House heavy," quit being Dick Cheney's top political adviser to become a mother that is in "nirvana." Mary Matalin is a mother of two daughters, and wife to James Carville, who is a member of the opposing political party. The article is centered around Mary Matalin's stress of being a mother, wife, and working at "one of the world's most demanding jobs." Being that Matalin assumed such a powerful career position, knowing that she was married and had children, her career can be labeled a developmental or normative stressor. These stresses can be labeled normative due to the fact that the article has shown Matalin to be overcome by stress from "juggling marriage, motherhood, and one of the world's most demanding jobs." This is something that can only be expected over time from holding three, such exhausting positions.

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"What You Think Adult Education Is And How It Pertains To You Personally" As defined in Webster's Dictionary, "Education" is the instruction or training by which people learn to develop and use their mental, moral and physical powers; A gaining of experience .to train or develop (a particular power or skill). ... I've talked for years about going back to school and to finally be doing it now means feeling good about myself. ... What I develop and learn in the classroom, I can take with me everywhere in my professional and personal life. ... Security to provide for my family an...

• Word Count: 550

6. If you had Glaucon's ring, what would you do first?

What would you do first? ... What would you do generally, that is, as a matter of regular practice? ... Do you agree with Glaucon? ... The point is do we really mean those words or have we become so accustomed to this practice that we do not even know what the words mean? ... As far as humans being egotistical that is true, imagine yourself in the following scenario: You go the photography studio to get a family picture done or maybe you are at a family or highschool reunion. ...

• Word Count: 1306

"What am I going to do?" ... The example being how no matter what happens to him, what he did, or what he decides to do, his family would support him nonetheless. ... "I just don't know what to do." ... Not only do you receive your physical appearances from your parents; you begin to act like them in many ways. ... "You know I didn't mean what I said," Josh had apologized to his sister. ...

• Word Count: 813
• Approx Pages: 3

8. Martin Scorsese' Mean Streets

The film Mean Streets by Martin Scorsese is heavy influenced by what the French called "film noir" or black film. "You don't make up for your sins in church...you do it in the streets." ... An 8mm intro of what seems to be family movies is shown and the first shot is of flashing police lights on a squad car. ... After 8mm intro, scorsese shows what seems to be a charcter introduction. ... Mean Streets contains this shot in the following scene. ...

• Word Count: 693

Watch CBS News

Fact checking DNC 2024 Day One speeches from Biden, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats

By Laura Doan , Amelia Donhauser

Updated on: August 20, 2024 / 9:54 AM EDT / CBS News

CBS News is fact checking some of the statements made by  speakers  during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which is taking place in Chicago from Monday, Aug. 19 through Thursday, Aug. 22. 

The convention began with unity as the theme, and the featured speakers Monday were President Biden and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as a host of others.

Some of the comments that CBS News' Confirmed team fact checked involved Democrats' comments about GOP nominee Donald Trump's record as president, as well as the Biden administration's record.

CBS News is covering the DNC live. 

Fact check on Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez's claim that Trump promises "to terminate the Affordable Care Act": Misleading

Details:  In 2016, former President Donald Trump promised to repeal and replace the nation's health care law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), if elected. During his presidency, he backed attempts by Republicans to repeal parts of the law while carrying over other parts.

In this election cycle, Trump has continued to criticize the law but has said he doesn't support terminating all of its policies outright. In November, Trump said he intends to  "replace"  the Affordable Care Act with another package of health reforms. 

In March, he  said  that he was "not running to terminate the ACA" but instead to make it better and cheaper.

By Alexander Tin, Amelia Donhauser 

Fact check on California Rep. Robert Garcia's claim that Trump "told us to inject bleach into our bodies": False

Details:  In an April 2020 White House  news briefing  with members of the government's coronavirus task force, Trump, who was then president, speculated about combating COVID-19 by injecting disinfectant into the body. He suggested doctors should study this possibility, but he did not tell people to inject bleach into their bodies.

"I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute," Trump said. "And is there a way we can do something like that — by injection inside or almost a cleaning — because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it'd be interesting to check that, so that you're going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me." 

The Trump White House later offered differing excuses for the remark. It first  said  Trump's comments were taken out of context. A day later, Trump  told  reporters that he was being sarcastic when he raised the possibility of injecting disinfectants.

"I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen," he said.

By Amelia Donhauser

Fact check on Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin's claim that the U.S. economy added 16 million jobs during the Biden administration: True, but needs context

Details:  Under President Biden, the U.S. economy has added more than 15.8 million jobs, according to July data from  the Bureau of Labor Statistics . 

However, it's important to note that the number includes roughly 9 million jobs that were lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. economy under Mr. Biden has seen an increase of approximately 6.4 million jobs above February 2020 levels, according to  the Bureau of Labor Statistics . 

By comparison, 6.7 million jobs were created in the first three years of former President Donald Trump's term between January 2017 and February 2020, before the pandemic left Trump with record job losses. 

By Laura Doan

Fact checking Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's claim that Vance thinks women should stay in violent marriages, and pregnancies from rape are "inconvenient": Misleading

Beshear: "JD Vance says women should stay in violent marriages and that pregnancies resulting from rape are simply inconvenient."

Details:  Before he was a Republican Ohio senator,   JD Vance spoke of being raised by his grandparents and their relationship at an  event  in 2021. He contrasted their commitment to each other during an "incredibly chaotic" marriage with modern divorce rates.

"I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that, like, 'Well, okay, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy," he said. "And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that's going to make people happier in the long term." 

"And maybe it worked out for the moms and dads, though I'm skeptical," Vance added. "But it really didn't work out for the kids of those marriages." 

Vance has repeatedly said these remarks were taken out of context. In a  statement  to VICE News in 2022 he said, "In my life, I have seen siblings, wives, daughters, and myself abused by men. It's disgusting for you to argue that I was defending those men."

In 2021, Vance was  asked  if anti-abortion laws should include exceptions for rape or incest. He replied: "It's not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it's whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child's birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society. The question really, to me, is about the baby," he continued. "We want women to have opportunities, we want women to have choices, but above all, we want women— and young boys in the womb — to have the right to life." 

In July, Vance  told  Fox News, "The Democrats have completely twisted my words. What I did say is that we sometimes in this society see babies as inconveniences, and I absolutely want us to change that." 

By Amelia Donhauser 

Fact checking Biden's claim there are fewer border crossings today than when Trump left office: True, needs context

President Biden : "There are fewer border crossings today than when Donald Trump left office." 

Details:  In July, migrant apprehensions along the U.S. southern border dropped to  56,408 , the lowest level since September 2020, according to  U.S. Customs and Border Protection  data. When Trump left office in January 2021, the number of apprehensions was around 75,000. 

The decline in illegal border crossings had been dropping steadily since the spring and accelerated after Mr. Biden issued a  proclamation  on June 4 banning most migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. Officials have also said scorching summer temperatures and Mexico's efforts to stop migrants have contributed to the drop.

Yearly apprehensions at the U.S. southern border also reached record highs during Mr. Biden's term, according to the  data . In fiscal year 2023, the number reached 2.2 million. The number of yearly apprehensions under Trump peaked at around 852,000 in the fiscal year 2019. 

By Camilo Montoya-Galvez,   Laura Doan    

Alexander Tin contributed to this report.

• Hillary Clinton
• Kamala Harris

Laura Doan is a fact checker for CBS News Confirmed. She covers misinformation, AI and social media.

More from CBS News

Biden's speech headlines DNC Day 1 schedule. See today's full agenda.

Hillary Clinton says "the future is here, it's in our grasp," in energetic DNC speech

Trump defends personal attacks on Harris, discusses election outcome

The Democratic National Convention is underway. Here's what to know.

Disney wrongful death lawsuit over allergy highlights danger of fine print

The Walt Disney Co. is trying to toss out a widower’s wrongful death lawsuit , arguing he agreed to settle any disputes with the entertainment giant and any of its affiliates out of court when he signed up for a free trial of its streaming service Disney+.

In February, Jeffrey Piccolo sued Walt Disney Parks and Resorts over the death of his wife at a restaurant at Walt Disney World.

His wife, Kanokporn Tangsuan, who was allergic to nuts and dairy, dined at Raglan Road Irish Pub, in the resort's Disney Springs shopping, dining and entertainment complex in Florida. Tangsuan, a New York doctor, experienced a severe allergic reaction and died.

In a legal filing, lawyers for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts said the matter should be referred to an outside arbitrator because when Piccolo signed up for a Disney+ account in 2019 and when he bought tickets to EPCOT on the Disney website in 2023, he agreed to arbitrate all disputes against the company.

Piccolo’s lawyers countered that he never signed an agreement with Walt Disney Parks. Even if he had, they said the terms and conditions would not extend to his wife. 

“We are deeply saddened by the family’s loss and understand their grief. Given that this restaurant is neither owned nor operated by Disney, we are merely defending ourselves against the plaintiff’s attorney’s attempt to include us in their lawsuit against the restaurant," Disney said in a statement.

The Raglan Road Irish Pub, located at the resort, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In court papers, Disney described its relationship with the restaurant as a landlord.

Are consumers unwittingly signing away their legal rights when they sign up for a streaming service? Quite possibly.

“Sadly, Disney could very well have a viable argument here,” University of Buffalo law professor Christine Bartholomew said. “The Supreme Court has, time and again, treated these arbitration provisions as binding. It doesn't matter if it's in fine, teeny tiny print in the terms of conditions.”

Every day, we blindly click “I agree” when we sign up for a service or buy tickets. But what’s in that fine print can cause harm.

“As it currently stands, a forced arbitration provision in the terms and conditions of the sale or service can bind parties,” Bartholomew said. “Even if the consumer didn't read the terms. Even if the consumer didn't understand the consequences.”

Including mandatory arbitration clauses in contracts is a common legal tactic to avoid class action lawsuits and large damages awards. 

Companies say they make sure arbitration is fair for consumers and argue it is also faster and less expensive. But critics say the secretive process puts consumers at a massive disadvantage and very few people pursue a legal case through the arbitration system.

The Disney+ subscriber agreement says it applies to all disputes involving Walt Disney Co. or its affiliates, with two exceptions.

“Almost no one reads these contracts but the courts still enforce them,” University of Maryland law professor Jeff Sovern said.

Consumers don’t sign away all of their rights in these contracts, but they sign away a lot, including the constitutional right to a jury trial and their day in court, Sovern said. 

“Congress has limited the use of arbitration clauses in some transactions but not enough, in my view,” he said.

According to the wrongful death lawsuit, Tangsuan and Piccolo chose the restaurant because it advertised its commitment to accommodating people with allergies. 

When they told the waiter Tangsuan had severe allergies to dairy and nuts, she was “unequivocally assured” the food would be allergen-free, according to the lawsuit.

When the orders of broccoli and corn fritter, scallops and onion rings arrived, they did not have allergen-free flags so Piccolo and Tangsuan inquired again if the food was allergen-free and were told the dishes were safe for Tangsuan to eat.

About 45 minutes later while shopping alone at a nearby store, Tangsuan had a severe allergic reaction. She administered an EpiPen but began having difficulty breathing and collapsed. She was taken to the hospital where she later died.

The medical examiner determined her death was the result of anaphylaxis “due to elevated levels of dairy and nuts in her system."

Disney restaurants have strict protocols for food allergies and are known for their attention to allergens.

Lawmakers have proposed fixes to give consumers more leverage. Some states have tried to address the issue. A rule proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to allow consumers to file class-action lawsuits over disputes with banks, credit card companies and other financial service firms was killed in 2017 . 

At the time, Wells Fargo faced a huge scandal over millions of unauthorized consumer accounts. Richard Cordray, at the time the CFPB's director, said the outcome preserved “a two-tiered justice system.”

David Vladeck, a Georgetown law professor and the former director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission, says he doubts Disney’s terms of service apply in this case, but mandatory arbitration remains “a huge thorn for consumers.” 

“The CFPB came really close to getting a rule that would have protected consumers but they got cut off at the knees in Congress,” he said. 

The agency has a congressional mandate to address mandatory arbitration, Vladeck said, and “people like me have been pushing the CFPB to promulgate a new rule to protect consumers.”

“ Most of the companies in the U.S. require mandatory arbitration and it allows them to, by and large, cut off much relief,” he said. “Companies love it but individuals who are harmed by these corporations, they really don’t have any access to any forum that would give them relief and that’s a real problem.”

How can consumers dodge this quandary? According to Bartholomew, their options are limited.

“The Supreme Court's view is if you don't like it, don't sign it,” she said. 

But, she says, that’s hardly realistic advice. So she encourages consumers to lobby lawmakers for change. 

“To me, if consumers want to fix this, they need to vote for politicians who are willing to change the power dynamic between corporations and consumers,” Bartholomew said.

Kamala Harris Addresses Economy In Speech—Here’s What To Know About Her Policy Agenda

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Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled more details about her economic agenda in a speech Friday in North Carolina, proposing an “opportunity economy” as the Democratic nominee focused on lowering the price of groceries and prescription drugs and addressing the housing crisis with an eye on bolstering the middle class.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, N.C., on Aug. 16.

Grocery Prices: The candidate would work in her first 100 days to help Congress pass a national ban on “price gouging” for food and groceries, as well as give the Federal Trade Commission and prosecutors authority to go after companies they determine price gouge, support small businesses in the industry, take a closer look at mergers between big grocery companies and “aggressively” investigate price-fixing in meat supply chains specifically.

Housing Costs: Harris wants to provide $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time home buyers and is calling for the creation of three million new housing units within the next four years, proposing a tax credit for developers who build starter homes and investing $40 million in an innovation fund to tackle the housing crisis.

Rental Costs: Harris would also expand a tax credit for housing developers who build affordable housing rental units, and is calling on Congress to pass legislation that would stop predatory investors who buy up rental homes and collude with each other to raise rental prices.

Child Tax Credit: Harris proposed giving families a $6,000 tax credit for newborns in their first year of life, and restore a pandemic-era tax credit of $3,600 per child for middle and lower-class families.

Taxes: Harris also wants to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers in lower-income jobs, which would cut taxes by up to $1,250, and has previously said she would continue President Joe Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on American households earning $400,000 or less annually, and does support raising taxes for high earners and corporations, according to The New York Times.

No Tax On Tips: Harris has separately endorsed a plan to get rid of taxes on tips for hospitality and service workers, echoing a proposal by former President Donald Trump—which has been criticized by some experts—though a campaign official told CNN tips would still be subject to payroll taxes, and would include an income limit and guardrails to prevent people like hedge fund managers from taking advantage of the policy.

Prescription Drug Prices: Harris proposed a $35 cap on insulin and capping out-of-pocket expenses on prescription drugs at $2,000 per year on Friday, also saying she would speed up Medicare negotiations on the price of prescription drugs—after the Biden administration announced a deal lowering costs on 10 medications—and crack down on anti-competitive practices in the pharmaceutical industry that cause higher prices.

Healthcare: The Harris campaign also announced her intention to work with states to cancel Americans’ medical debt, and she proposed expanding subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans that would save health insurance customers an average of $700 on their health insurance premiums.

Paid Leave: Harris has not released a specific paid leave proposal, but she has previously co-sponsored 12-week paid leave legislation, Politico notes, with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., telling the outlet, “I absolutely believe that when they are in office, we will get a paid leave bill done finally.”

Minimum Wage: Harris called for raising the minimum wage in a Las Vegas speech earlier in August, but her campaign has not specified how high she believes it should be raised.

Fed Independence: Harris has vowed to maintain the Federal Reserve’s independence after Trump said he believed “the president should have at least [a] say” on the Federal Reserve’s decisions, with Harris telling reporters, “The Fed is an independent entity and as president I would never interfere in the decisions that the Fed makes.”

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Crucial Quote

Harris said Friday she’d be “laser focused on creating opportunities for the middle class” if elected president, calling for “an economy where everyone can compete and have a real chance to succeed.” “Now is the time to chart a new way forward, to build an America where everyone’s work is rewarded and talents are valued, where we work with labor and business to strengthen the American economy, and where everyone has the opportunity not only to get by, but to get ahead,” the vice president said.

What To Watch For

Harris said in her North Carolina speech that she intends to unveil more economic proposals in the weeks ahead. The vice president has still not issued a full policy platform or unveiled proposals for policy issues beyond the economy, and those are also expected in the near future.

How Do Harris’ Policies Compare With Biden’s?

Harris’ economic policy agenda is largely in line with Biden’s economic platform, with some tweaks to emphasize causes that are more important to her, like the child tax credit. “Same values, different vision,” a Harris aide told The Guardian. “She’s not moving far away from him on substance, she will highlight the ones that matter most to her.” The initial plans from Harris’ campaign also suggest the vice president plans to be more aggressive in her policy approaches than Biden, however, as polls have suggested voters hold dim views of how the president has handled the economy. While Biden has also opposed price gouging, Harris’ proposal to enable the FTC and U.S. attorneys to go after companies that hike up prices goes beyond what the president has proposed, Politico notes , and her proposed $40 million investment in the housing crisis is double the amount the Biden administration spent.

Harris’ economic agenda released Friday didn’t go fully in depth about her proposals, which The New York Times reports is by design. The Times reported prior to Harris’ speech that the Harris campaign has adopted a “strategic vagueness” for her economic proposals, believing that being more of a “blank slate” will help ward off attacks and attract more support from business groups.

How Do Harris’ Policies Compare With Trump’s?

Trump’s economic agenda is largely focused on raising tariffs on imported goods, which Harris has said she opposes. The ex-president has also called for cutting taxes and regulations in hopes of lowering inflation, including lowering the corporate tax rate, and has encouraged increasing oil production in order to lower energy prices. In addition to his “no tax on tips” proposal that Harris has also endorsed, Trump has called for ending taxes on Social Security benefits, which Harris has not yet responded to. Experts believe the ex-president’s proposal could speed up Social Security and Medicare becoming insolvent, with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projecting exempting taxes on benefits would result in Social Security and Medicare receiving $1.6 trillion less in revenue between 2026 and 2035. The Trump campaign opposed reports of Harris’ economic proposals Wednesday, with spokesperson Steven Cheung saying in a statement, “Kamala Harris can’t hide from her disastrous record of skyrocketing inflation … Americans are struggling under the Biden-Harris economy, and now she wants to gaslight them into believing her bald-faced lies.”

42%. That’s the share of voters who trust Harris more to handle the economy, according to a Financial Times/University of Michigan poll released Sunday, versus 41% who trust Trump more. That’s down from Trump holding a six-point lead over Biden in July, though the poll also showed 42% believe a Trump presidency would leave them better off financially, while only 33% said the same for Harris.

Key Background

Harris became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in July after Biden stepped down suddenly from the presidential race, following weeks of pressure over mounting concerns about his mental fitness. While the vice president has quickly garnered Democrats’ support and risen in the polls, Harris has released few concrete policy proposals in the first few weeks of her campaign—drawing some criticism as a result—with her speech Friday expected to be the most substantive remarks she’s given on policy so far. Her focus on the economy comes as polling has repeatedly shown it’s the most important issue to voters in this election cycle, with the vice president hoping to attract support amid low approval ratings for Biden’s handling of the economy. Harris’ speech also comes days after news that inflation fell in July to its lowest point in more than three years, with federal data released Wednesday showing inflation at 2.9% in July, the first time it’s been below 3% since March 2021.

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