The nuclear family, a household with two parents and their children, has been  the most common type of family in America. However, according to the Pew Research Center, the percentage of married couples with children between 1970-2021 dropped from 67% to 37%. This decline means an increase in other types of households, such as single parents with kids or married couples with no kids.

This change shows that the type of people in a family doesn’t matter, but the basis of a family should include people who can be relied on and provide unconditional love for each other. A family shouldn’t have a limit and doesn’t have to just consist of people who are blood-related to each other. The family that someone was born into might not be the people who provide that support, so people should be able to determine their own family.

It is up to each person to decide what a family means to them and what makes up one. In 2023, The United States Census Bureau recorded 128.7 million households in America. Those households could have one parent or two, they could be living with their grandparents, or they could be adopted, among other things. The number of people in a family is irrelevant because it does not affect the amount of love that those people provide each other.

However, some people feel that family should be legally determined by the government because it can have a beneficial impact on those inside the family. In the past, the government passed legislation that prevented certain groups of people from getting married or adopting. While the Gallup found that 94% of Americans approved of interracial marriage in 2021, only 69% of Americans believed that same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law in 2024.

Even if two people are not legally married, that does not mean the love they have for each other or can give others counts as anything less.

The most important aspects of a family are love and acceptance, so just because the government does not recognize somebody’s family does not mean that the relationship should be discredited.

There are a wide variety of family dynamics and even if somebody else’s family dynamic doesn’t look like another person’s, it does not mean that one is “right” and the other is “wrong.” Ultimately, people should focus on finding the people who love them the most and accepting them as their family.