I have been trying to google the word "family" , and this is the meaning I've found, "a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit" . Well, there's still another meaning that goes this way, "all the descendants of a common ancestor". I find these meanings ain't truly describe the word.
While on the other hand, Wikipedia gives a much more thorough explanation. "In human society, family is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship)". Now this sounds much better, or rather more relatable to the word.
Opps, there goes the days where we have to lookup words using hardcopy of dictionary at home or library, where we have to flip through the pages and find by alphabetical order then scan through the page to find the word we need.
Anyway, nowadays we are living in a smaller unit of family compared to the years of our ancestors, where family will only grow bigger when the children get married and even bigger when the children have their own children. Of course, this varies depending where we were.
Who would have guess, that the current modern style family have kids that stayed separately from their parents, irregardless they are married or not. This of course with various reason - education, work, married life, independence - you name it.
No matter you are far or near with your family, how the relationship with your family matters the most. What's the point of having family under the same roof when everyone having sore face. What's the point of calling each other family when you don't even acknowledge the other party.
I guess everyone has a different set of values that he or she held in regard for family. But I truly think, being in a family means there's affinity between the family members. Be it the affinity is good or bad. As I also hold this deeply, what doesn't breaks you, makes you stronger as God only put obstacle that you can cross, but ultimately it's still up to you whether you want to cross it or not.
Living life by itself ain't easy. For most of us, family is an extra support for us in this life. Though, for some that do not have family or those that really have mean family, I guess it may be a reminder to ourselves to be a better family to ourselves and others.
