WHAT DOES FAMILY REALLY MEAN?

I'm sure for a lot of people, a "traditional" family is the mom, dad, 2.5 kids, and the dog. However, times have changed and for a lot of people that is not even close to what their family resembles. For me personally, I like to thing that I have a few different families. For the first half of my life, my grandparents raised me along with two of my cousins, and than I lived with my mother who was a single parent. They, to me are my biological family. Then I have my god-family who couldn't be any closer to me if we were blood related. There is a bond and closeness between my biological and god-family because we've lived together, grew up together, and share similar values. I no longer consider myself Catholic or Christian, but my family is, and when I was younger I think their faith is what helped keep us together through difficult times. Not only that, I have a group of friends that I went to school with and we've all known each other for over ten years. We still talk daily, hang out during the weekends, help each other out financially and emotionally and I consider us to be a "family" as well. I don't think there is one single definition of what a family is, it's different for each person. I think that if there is a bond, if you love and respect one another, that is a family in itself.

This is a link to what certain people's definitions of what a family is:
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/health/work-life-balance/HTH_WLB/721264-41435431

I agree that a family can have an impact on the greater society, be it negative and/or positive. A family, no matter who it is comprised off is where most if not all people learn right from wrong, how to interact with others, morals, and religious beliefs, etc. Than they take that out into the world and act according to what they've grown up learning and believing. If you are from a family that stresses giving back to the community and they have taught you to be a good person, than that's how you'll live your life out in the world. And if you're from a family where you were surrounded by violence, didn't stress education or good morals that is also how you will behave in public. In order for there to be a positive impact within the global community, families need to make sure they are raising respectful, law abiding, open minded individuals who can contribute to society instead of being deviants that take from it.