FAMILY CAN BE ANYONE

By: Destiny Corletto

Arizona State University
• The topic that I will be discussing for the
argument of definition project is the word
family. The term family has gained so many
different definitions since the fifteenth
century when it first came about. However
our world has changed since the fifteen
century and the word has changed with it.
For example, now that adoptions can occur
almost anyone can be considered a family. I
ABSTRACT
personally believe that everybody should be
informed that the word family is not cut
down to one specific definition.
• Keywords: Family, blood related, definitions.
 DEFINITION OF FAMILY
• The word family first came about in the fifteenth
century. The definition that was told then was,
“a group of individuals living under one roof
that included blood relations and
servants”(Words, 1998). The word has been
redefined multiple times ever since. For
example, in the eighteenth century the
definition of the word was, “those descended,
or claiming descent, from a common
ancestor”(Words, 1998).
 MY PERSONAL DEFINITION
• Family is often defined as a group of people that consist of
parents and a child who live under the same roof. I on the
other hand believe otherwise. I don’t think that a family is
defined as a group of people who are blood related, or a
mother, father and a kid living together in one house.
Personally, I believe that family is considered to be people
who are constantly there for you and love you
unconditionally no matter who they are in your life. I think a
family can be a mom, dad and children. Two dads/moms
and their kids, a team, friends, etc.
 • “Family is a group of people (not
necessarily blood related) whom you
love, trust, respect, support, and rely
on through good, bad and hard
times” (Sahagun, 2018)
• “Family is a group of people you can
always count on to bail you out of
trouble or in this case a last minute
project, but will at the same time love
PERSONAL you unconditionally” (Luna, 2018)
DEFINITIONS OF • “A family consist of people who are
open minded, understanding,
OTHERS respectful, good listeners, able to
take criticism, take advice, caring,
loving, trustworthy and people who
give unconditional love” (Luna V,
2018).
• “Family: group of people that is very
important to you..” (Corletto R, 2018).
 PERSONAL DEFINITIONS OF
OTHERS CONT.
• “Family is having each others back no matter what, even if you
argue with them” (Roberts, 2018)
• “I don’t think a family necessarily HAS to be made up of blood. I
think family are the people who you see sticking by your side
through everything and while that may mean our blood relatives to
people like you and me, it doesn’t always to everyone else.
Everyone’s families are so complex and I think that even though,
yes we are born into the family, we are sometimes born into other
family relationships that are built even stronger than the bond we
have with our blood family. So I think that what “defines” a family is
the bond you have with someone and the love and support that’s
shown in that relationship whether it be blood relatives or
friends/people who you just have that special connection with”
(Ochoa, 2018).
 TWITTER POLL
• As a way to get statistics of my own, I decided
to make a twitter poll asking people on twitter
what they think a family is defined as. I gave
people the options to the left and allowed
them to express their minds through their vote.
(I made sure that the ”Don’t really care” option
was put there because a lot of people don’t
care because it does not have anything to do
with them and accept any of the options.)
 TWITTER POLL ANALYSIS
• I figured that the results would have ended like this due to an article that I
read ahead of time. This article conducted a survey of 2,691 random adults
and asked a similar question to mine. The author of the article found that
68% of these people accepted the many different family structures. Of these
68%, 37% of the people couldn’t care less because it makes no difference to
them.
 • A significant fact that I recently learned while reading an
article is that sometimes friends are capable of making you
a lot more happier and healthier than your own family. This
has actually been proven by studies done by Professor
William Chopik. I also gained the knowledge that having
close friends has a stronger impact on older people’s lives.
Friendship is such a powerful relationship that friends
TEAM/FRIENDS deserve to be defined as family even though they aren’t
blood family.
• Teams can also be defined as family. In fact a team that
consider themselves family do much better than other
teams. An article that I read stated a very great point,
“watch an interview with any athlete or coach who has just
won a major title and you will invariably hear the words
“hard work,” “determination” and — nine times out of 10 —
“family”(Leslie, 2016).
TEAM/FRIENDS
LGBTQ AND SINGLE
PARENTS
• Like I said in the beginning, I believe that any
couple with their children can be considered
a family. A big argument that has been
going on amongst people is if two dads or
moms and their adopted child would be
considered a family. I recently read an
article about how an adopted child feels
being in a family. The author stated that it
did not matter who adopted them, as long
as they are loving people and willing to
make them feel at home and feel as if they
are apart of a family. I also believe that as
long as a single parent is willing to love their
kids unconditionally then they are
considered a family as well.
 REFERENCES
• Corletto, R (2018, March 18). Text message interview.
• Luna, O. (2018, March 21). Text message interview.
• Luna, V. (2018, March 21). Text message interview.
• Ochoa, A. (2018, March 19). Text message interview.
• Roberts, D. (2018, March 19). Text message interview.
• Sahagun, M. (2018, March 18). Text message interview.
• Leslie, Nathan. (2016, December 27). We Are F-A-M-I-L-Y - Values That Build Winning Teams.
Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://onemillionskates.com/we-are-f-a-m-i-l-y/
• Melcher, M What Adopted Means to a Child. (2015, July 10). Retrieved March 15, 2018, from
https://www.adoption.net/a/parenting/blogs-parenting/what-adopted-means-to-a-child/23699/
• Words, W. W. (1998, June 6). Family. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from
http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-fam1.htm