the traditional American family is gone!

Today if you ask many Americans to give you their definition of the traditional family in America you will receive many different responses. Most likely, the answers that you will receive are as colorful and diverse as the multitude of populace that currently lives within the United States. Just as there is not one single example of the “so-called typical American”, there is not one single example of the “so-called typical American family”. America, the “melting pot” has a vast number of people from different nationalities, cultures, and values as a result her families come in a variety of assortment. The traditional American family, as defined some fifty a year ago is becoming a thing of the past.
According to the US Census, half a century ago, the description of the typical American family included two married parents: a father, a mother and 2.3 children. Most American families of the past were clearly a male husband, a female wife, and their biological children. More often than not, these families shared the same ethnicity, culture and shared the same religious affiliations and beliefs. Today’s American family is quite the opposite.
Today more couples are choosing to cohabitate rather than enter matrimony. The choice to co-habitation is a common thing in today’s times. It seems that everyone is doing it!
Research now finds that cohabitation can no longer be seen as a single social phenomenon where hormones drive lustful young adults to shack-up. Instead, widely diverse populations, from teenagers to seniors, live together, as an experiment in building an intimate relationship. Even many celebrities have opted out of marriage and into co-habitation. Oprah, Brad, Angelina and LeBron are just a few of the high profile celebrities that cohabitate.
Like families headed by heterosexual parents, lesbian and gay parents and their children are diverse groups. Currently, there is a great divide amongst Americans concerning the idea of same sex marriage.
There are families headed by single parents. Families that include grandparents raising their grandchildren because the parents are absent. There are transcultural, transracial, biracial, interracial families. Families without children, families that adopt children. The list goes on & on because the spectrum is so broad.
In the middle of the same sex argument unfolds another voice. Yet, many Americans will agree that a family is defined as a unit of people who care about each other regardless of race, gender, culture or biological ties. The fading traditional American family has been replaced by the blended family.Stepfamilies, also known as blended families, are more of a norm now than ever.
At least one-third of all children in the U.S. will be part of a stepfamily before they reach age 18. Research defines blended families as a family in which one or both partners have been married before. A vast number of American families are blended in some form or another form. American citizens come from different backgrounds, colors, genders, cultures and beliefs as a result her families are just as dissimilar. The traditional American family has become a thing of the past. Would someone please tell me if there is a such thing as a traditonal family?
What's the family structure like where you live?