National Family Civility Day – November 15, 2024

History of National Family Civility Day

Familial love is the first kind of love. Parents, siblings, and extended family members show unconditional love for their relatives. Nuclear families emerged as the most common form of family structure between 1950 and 1970. Biological parents lived and raised their children together. Sometimes nuclear families include adopted children.

This is not to say that nuclear families were the only kind of family. The U.S. also had an extended family structure, including grandparents, uncles and aunts, nephews, nieces, in-laws, and cousins. Though this was an older model that started to fizzle out in the early 1900s, many communities retained this family structure, especially those who migrated from countries with a strong sense of familial unity and closeness.

The postmodern family emerged in the mid-20th century, comprising single-parent families, same-sex families, and blended families. Single-parent families were initially a result of divorce or death, but more people have chosen to become single parents in recent years. Blended families – families with a stepparent or stepsibling – cropped up more in the 1990s. Same-sex families became more commonplace following increased social acceptance of the L.G.B.T.Q. community and the legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S. in 2015. Though modern family structures, cultures, and backgrounds vary, the concept of family civility — where a nation shows equity, support, and civility to all families — is universal.