standards set by society. Childless families consist of a partnership, living and working together. Many childless families take on the responsibility of pet ownership or have extensive contact with their nieces and nephews rather than having their own children.
THE FAMILIES WE CHOOSE
Stepfamily Over half of all marriages end in divorce, and many of these individuals choose to get remarried. This creates the stepfamily, which involves two separate families merging into one new unit. It consists of a new partner and their children from previous marriages or relationships. Stepfamilies are about as common as the nuclear family, although they tend to have more challenges,, such as adjustment periods and discipline issues. Stepfamilies need to learn to work together and also work with their exes to ensure these family units run smoothly.
We got to the house in the middle of the night, our five cramped bodies spilling out of the car and onto the driveway. It was Fourth of July weekend and we’d gone to a friend’s house in upstate New York. The leaves in the driveway swirled in front of the headlights of the car. We threw our bags inside, sat at the kitchen table, and passed around a bottle of whiskey until it was empty. The night blurred greasy lamplight across my vision at the edge of the morning. It somehow felt momentous being there that weekend, all of us having agreed to go away together. I thought how a scene like this one was the closest thing I knew to what I mean by the word “family,” sitting around a kitchen table late at night and believing that there’s nothing in the world from which the people you’ve gathered here can’t keep you safe.
Grandparent Family Many grandparents today are raising their grandchildren for a variety of reasons. One in fourteen children is raised by his grandparents, and the parents are not present in the child’s life. This could be due to parents’ death, addiction, abandonment or being unfit parents. Many grandparents need to go back to work or find additional sources of income to help raise their grandchildren. Variety of Structures There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to what is the best type of family structure. As long as a family is filled with love and support for one another, it tends to be successful and thrive. Families need to do what is best for each other and themselves, and that can be achieved in almost any unit.
Comprehension: What is the single greatest change in family structure trends? How many children, based on national trends, are raised by their grandparents? With different structures, can you identify the benefits and challenges inherent in each? Reflection: Family structures can overlap. Using Los Otros and your own personal life, discuss the variety of structures we see or experience in the world of the play and today.
By Helena Fitzgerald, catapult.co
We spent the weekend running around pelting each other with water balloons in an absurd game we’d created. No one could remember the rules, so everyone just threw as many water balloons as they could, shrieking and dodging Romances, couplings, marriages: all of these contain pre-made signposts and triumphs. The proofs of legitimacy are built in, like points on a map between which one can drive cleanly, staying on the wide highways, the well-lit roads. We know when we have reached the next plot point and we know what it means when we get there. Friendship, however, has no such reassuring signposts, and no answering congratulations upon arrival. Friendship is the catchall for otherwise nebulous relationships—acquaintances, crushes, coworkers, people you’ve hooked up with, people you’ve only met on Twitter, people to whom you haven’t spoken in years. Friendship is a grey area, and this very lack of definition, this space beyond category, is what has always drawn me to it, made it feel bigger and more consequential than other relationships. Friendship offers an undefined space that can be made new without expectation.
Read Helena Fitzgerald’s full article, The Families We Choose, at tinyurl.com/chosenfamily
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