Families Living

Families Living features issues that impact on families. Comments about these issues are welcome.

The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society.
The primary function of the family is to reproduce society.
Some marry however, even when there is no intention of having children.
The usual structure of families consists of parents and children.
Most Western societies use kinship terms based on conjugal “nuclear families”.

Mother: a female parent.
Father: a male parent.
Son: a male child of the parents.
Daughter: a female child of the parents.
Brother: a male child of the same parents.
Sister: a female child of the same parents.

These terms assume that the mother’s husband has also served as the biological father. In some families, a woman may have children with more than one man or a man may have children with more than one woman.

Half-brother or half-sister: a child who shares only one parent with another child.
Step-brother or step-sister: children who do not share biological or adoptive parents in common, when one of their biological parents marries one of the other child’s biological parents.
Stepfather or stepmother: any person other than the biological parent of a child, who marries the parent of that child.

The same terms apply to children adopted into a family as to children born into the family. Typically, upon marriage a person separates from the nuclear family of their childhood and forms a new nuclear family. This practice means that members of one’s own nuclear family once functioned as members of another nuclear family, or may one day become members of another nuclear family.

Other Relationships.

Grandfather: a parent’s father.
Grandmother: a parent’s mother.
Grandson: a child’s son.
Granddaughter: a child’s daughter.
Uncle: father’s brother, mother’s brother, father’s sister’s husband, mother’s sister’s husband.
Aunt: father’s sister, mother’s sister, father’s brother’s wife, mother’s brother’s wife.
Nephew: sister’s son, brother’s son, wife’s brother’s son, wife’s sister’s son, husband’s brother’s son, husband’s sister’s son.
Niece: sister’s daughter, brother’s daughter, wife’s brother’s daughter, wife’s sister’s daughter, husband’s brother’s daughter, husband’s sister’s daughter.

Grand: with additional generations the prefix “grand” modifies these terms.
Great grand: add an additional prefix “great” for each additional generation.
Cousin: the children of aunts or uncles.
First Cousin: two persons of the same generation who share a grandparent.
Second Cousin: if they share a great-grandparent.