American Families - Social Behavior

Society seems to have many different opinions when it comes to relationships and families and what is ideal. The ideal family may not exist anymore. We now have in our society families that are complete that do not necessarily contain the traditional material. The traditional family, as society would see it; usually consist of a married, mother and father and usually children. Moms are supposed to stay at home while dads work the forty-hour a week job. However, in our 2009 world, families exist in a lot of non-traditional ways. A lot of families now consist of single parent families, or same sex parents and their children, or even couples that are unmarried but live together. And even now, if a family contains what society sees as traditional as far as having a mom, dad, and kids, other aspects are not traditional anymore. Women now have more opportunity in the workplace than they have ever had, therefore, many moms are career moms and dads are sometimes staying at home.
A typical American family is the nuclear family; this consists of the mother/father and children.   The nuclear family is the most common type of family. A polygamous family includes more than one spouse. This type of family is considered wrongful in American society and in most states it is illegal. The extended family includes the mother, father, children, and other relatives like grandparents, aunts or uncles. This type of family is also common in America, but not as common as the nuclear family.
Whom do Americans consider their relatives? An American family considers anyone from their bloodline to be their relatives. When two people become married they inherit the relatives on both sides of the family, referred to as the in-laws. Whom do Americans marry?     America is almost completely open on the idea of whom they can marry. One of the most wrongful marriages are those that are incestuous. The marriage of close kin is a huge taboo in America. This is illegal and will get you a free...