 Care and love?  Blood connection?  Living together?  Common ancestory? How do YOU define Family?

Meet Basic Needs- health, safety, shelter, nurturing Provide Support- guidance, discipline, encouragement, teachable moments Form Traditions- customs, lifestyle, routines, expectations Share Values- right from wrong, religious guidance, moral development, respect, responsibility

 Nuclear Family  Extended Family  Single Parent Family  Blended Family  Legal Guardian  Foster Family  Adoptive  Non-Traditional  Skip Generation

 Formed when a couple marries  If couple has no children at the time  -Usually have two generations. Two parents, one male and one female, and a child or children. The child could be their biological child, an adopted child, foster child, or a combination. Most represented in TV and movies.  Members depend greatly on each other because relatives are not real close.  This can draw the nuclear family closer together

 Includes one parent and one or more children  Can be either father or mother  Child could be adopted  Parent could be divorced, widowed, separated, or never married.  Single parent plays the role of both mother and father

 Occurs when a single parent marries.  Stepparent: Person who marries the single mother or father.  Not related by blood, but may legally adopt.  Blended families happen when two single parents marry one another.  Do the children always get along?

 There are other relatives in the household other than the parents and children.  Most commonly the grandparents are in the extended family, but could include aunts, uncles, or cousins  Less common today  Relatives can offer guidance, support, babysitting, share chores  Grandparents can benefit from it also  Living expenses are reduced, enjoy companionship, feel secure

 Sometimes they occur when single parents move back into their parent’s home with children.  Single parents may need time to find a place to live or may not have enough money to live on their own

 Legal Guardian families happen when the parent(s) of a child are absent from a child’s life and another family member is elected to raise them as their own.  This could be an older sibling, cousin, aunt or uncle raising the child(ren).  Foster families volunteer to care for a child that is waiting to be adopted. A foster family is temporary.  Adoptive families are a permanent house for a child.

 Non-traditional families are less common (but becoming more common today). These are families with parents of the same sex raising a while.  You could also consider families such as ‘sister wives’ and/or possible The Duggars.  Any other ideas?  Skip generation parenting is when the grandparents or great grandparents are chosen/volunteer to raise the child as their own.

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