What Family Means To Me :by Katherine DeMond

Family isn't just people related by blood. It's also someone who loves you, cares about you, supports you, and sticks by your side no matter what. To me, that's exactly what family is. I believe this because people need to be a part of something in order to have a feeling of belonging. In some cases, people don't have loving genetic parents or grandparents to care about them. People need love and affection, and often they will get it from their social group. People are becoming more and more portable, meaning they move away from their biological family and have no one to love them.

   

Statistically, a family is no longer a mother, a father and their biological child living together under one roof. Now, there are more gay and lesbian couples raising children, as well as straight people adopting children. Those people aren't related by blood, yet they call themselves family, because they are. Those parents are the only parents that child will have while growing up. Those parents will love and nurture that child forever. It doesn't matter that they aren't related by blood, they still love each other just as much.

   

Secondly, not everyone has loving parents who care about them. Sometimes, parents aren't nice to their children, and don't love them. This sometimes causes the child to run away. They seek family through gangs, sport teams, and friends. They also join these groups because they want to fit in, and more and more people these days need to belong to something. People need love and affection and someone who will always give it to them are their friends.

 

Lastly, more and more people are moving away from their families. Since they are no longer around their biological family, they need to form new connections to feel the same way they did with their biological family. They need love and affection. They usually will join a group of some sort to get the feeling back. To feel part of a unit. Typically a person forms a few strong connections with co-workers or neighbours in their new location. In time, these bonds become as strong as if we are actually related. Work and the desire to travel, takes people away from their biological family.
    

In conclusion, people don't have to be related by blood to be a family. Not everyone has the same kind of parents since there are more ways to have a child. Everyone wants to have love and feel as though they belong. People are very portable currently and move all around the world and away from their biological family. Most people need love and affection. People refer to each other as brothers, sisters, uncles, and are not related by DNA, it has become accepted in our society that family means more than coming from the same gene pool.