What does it mean to be an American family?

I have a friend who is from India, and several other friends from around the world. It gives you a different perspective on this country when you can see it through the eyes of a visitor to our country. An Americn family means we have the freedom to teach our children our values without interference from the government.

An American family means that your family can be anything that means "family," hold any religious belief, serve any cuisine it enjoys, participate in any type of cultural celebration, treasure any kind of family ritual. Usually, however, most American families are like the country itself, a melting pot. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day by going to parades and eating corned beef, even though no one in our family is Irish. We dine on Thai, Mexican, Chinese, and Italian cuisine, even though no one has any Thai, Mexican, Chinese, or Italian roots. We pick and choose from this polyglot culture and call it each our own family's taste. It's knowing and understanding that many choices are better than a single selection, and every culture has something interesting to share.

I just came back from a year in India where I met my Tibetan husband. Now that we're back in the U.S., it feels good to be home, but it's all new for my husband. He's not a real American yet, and maybe he never will be. He's still very homesick for India. So am I, at times .. and yet, I retain my American identity. When we are really settled here and have our roots dug deep, we will be like any other American family, whether from India or Iran, Russia or Romania ... we'll simply become a part of the community and contribute whatever we can. That's the meaning of life wherever we live. But who knows? We might end up moving back to India. I think that's the dilemma for all immigrants. I'm reminded of the Dylan song "I Pity the Poor Immigrant." Aren't we all?

To me, an American family means the same as family anywhere. People who care about each other and would put those people first. I also think you can include very close friends in this circle of family. I have had many friends that I would do anything for, and they the same for me. I consider them as much family as I do my blood relatives.

We are a family of immigrants. I am from India (now an American), my wife is an American born to an American GI (World War II vet) and his German bride. So our dinner consists of anything from a great hamburger,steak,potatoes, to strudels, bratwurst,saurkraut, weiner snitzel to chicken curry and masala dosa.

Being an American Family means enjoying all the freedoms this country has to offer and contributing of ourselves (whether time, money, etc.) to let everyone who decides to live here permanently become aware of certain responsibilities. A loving, caring, sharing family is the same no matter where you came from...we are all people and we all live on this planet! More just choose to do so in America!

there are an infinate variety of American Families today, and they all seem to be increasingly under siege from this busy, ever accelerating, and often exhausting culture. While "white bread....been here for generations" families are often at the mercy of the hustle and rush and digital distraction overload, many recent arrivals seem to have a stronger resistance. Perhaps they have a deeper ingrained bond. Maybe their culture hasn't surrendered their treasured heritage of respect, and conversation, and family unity. Maybe they still realize that "family" is the closest thing to shelter that we have from the buffeting winds of change and cultural clutter. We should welcome their strength, sensitivity, and courage...and learn from it!

What does it mean to be an American family?

For an American family, in this day and age, this is a complicated question to address. A family is a self-contained unit, yet we live in an age where we rely more and more on sources outside the family in order to keep the family intact.
Jobs, schools, social networks, politics, non-family relationships used to be the things families talked about at home while they sat around the dinner table. These days the dinner table is not located in the home, it is located outside the home, and what were once secondary subjects to be talked about " around the dinner table " are now primary subjects that hold the American family hostage.
For better or worse, the American family, these days, has more in common with "business life" than it does with "personal life". For an American family to succeed these days, they must have a plan of action not unlike that of a small business or corporation. Today's American family needs to fight to keep from becoming a victim of a hostile takeover from the culture that surrounds it.
Mothers are still mothers, fathers are still fathers, children are still children, but the American family itself is now in the position of the cart leading the horse. Mom, dad, and the kids are expected to work first and run their family second.
On top of all the other challenges the American family faces, they are also burden of either reversing this trend or watching the American family slip behind the horse and the cart.

What does it mean to be an American Family?

Lucky. So many American families are torn apart by careers, divorce, tragedy, and grief. The lucky American family can stick together and weather any storm. Being an American family means each and every member can forever depend on each other no matter what comes their way.

Family is the one constant in a world that is constantly changing. It is a stream that is forever running, a blossom that is forever blossoming, a love that is always there.

Family is the glue of America; family is why America is so great because all of our desires, actions, and dreams are for our families as well as ourselves.

Family is America.

What does it mean to be an American family? The focus of my reply would certainly differ from the reply that Lahiri makes in "The Namesake"- as her focus is on the first and second generation immigrant experience, and my ancestors' arrivals precede living memory. But there are commonalities between my reply and the one she makes through literary means.

I will agree with her implicit statement that being an American family is far more complex than it first appears on the surface. I also perceived the assertion in her work that creating and maintaining a family is to some extent independent of, and even more personal than, the immigrant experience. I recall from the novel that the much-ballyhood and seemingly inevitable union between Gogol and his beautiful Indian-American spouse was less than perfect. Despite the shared immigrant experience of the couple, there was clearly a missing ingredient on the woman's part- and who knows, perhaps there was a missing ingredient on the part of Gogol too?

The focus of my family experience is to maintain our family identity in spite of the greater society in which we live, rather than to fit ourselves into it. We perceive the national identity of the USA as hostile towards the values that we share as a family. Now you may immediately raise an eyebrow at this and seek to typecast us as Christians who resent the secularism of America. No, that is not the case. Actually we are secular liberals who resent the intrusive nature of commercialism, materialism, and celebrity worship at the expense of shared values involving our future as a caring society which fulfills its leadership role in human affairs on our planet. But enough about politics, as it is not the core of the issue.

Creating and maintaining a family is primarily a matter of love and commitment rather than political or religious identity. Put four people together in a house, even if the youngest two are familiar with the older two since their own births, and you will not get universal agreement on every topic. In reading "The Namesake", the degree of self-sacrifice and caring from both Gogol's parents comes as a revelation to some American readers- but this is truly is part of being a family. Love your children without reservation and without willingness to take prisoners, and your love will be repaid inevitably in some small way, even if, as in the case of Gogol, the full understanding comes only after the parent's death. If nothing else, you will be able to know that you did not fail to love with your whole heart. Life is too short for half measures. So, an element of my reply to your question is a bit of discomfort in the way it is phrased. Being a family in America is like being a family anywhere. Love is the key. In some ways our families are forced to resist the distractions and follies of modern life if they wish to stay true to an inner compass. And in some ways our efforts to attend to family first are responsible for the survival of a shred of wisdom and caring in the basic unit of American society, the voter. Lahiri tells it as it is- not an easy task, but the one that matters most in life.

To be an American family is to be the inherator of a great tradition and responsibility. So much diversity has gone into the making of our nation's families, and our traditions are often a hodgepodge of many different cultures and nations.

The American family is an institution that has value, and holds values.

It is a safe, nurturing place where children can be free to express themselves and grow to be future leaders of our great nation.The American family can be nuclear, or extended, traditional or non-traditional in scope. The true American family is based on love and never hate. It embraces all races, orientations, and creeds equally - without jugement, with love and acceptance for all its members. It welcomes newcomers to the family. It does not allow politics and personal greed to come before truth, and the needs of the whole. The American family helps and supports its family members.

The American family reaches out beyond itself, to extend this spirit of love to the community, the country, and the world. The American family leads by unselfish example, and shows us that this nation was built on a solid foundation that, though often times rocky, still stands strong today.

There is no perfect American family. But there are many who aspire to these ideals, and they are what makes our country worth living in, worth being proud of.

An American family is a functioning dysfunctional unit of mixed heritages, pandemonium, and often on a pathway of finding ones own edification. We laugh, cry, love, and embrace every ethnic culture we are submerged within since birth. As we age the confusion leads way to knowledge that there is no set path that must be followed only those that we find spiritually fulfilling, which comes from within.

Knowing where we are from is an honor, realizing where we are going is a contentment we yearn for. As a second generation American I speak from my own genetically melting pot of, Hungarian Jew, Slavic Pagan, African American, Native American, and English Catholic. I was once asked, "What are you, and how do you know what to do?" A question easily answered, "I am an American."

An American Family is a very complex unit, which hopefully shares values, responsibilities to each other and to the values which have been developed and taught by the goals, religion and traditions that the parents have taught to their children. The family is under attack, but it will survive as long as we remember that there should be two parents which have the interests of developing and taking the responsibility for raising their children and teaching the children values and respect all the members of the family and that also respect the indiviiduality of others in the community even though they may be different and not necessarily share all the other members befiefs. It should be stressed that the children need to be taught responsibly and carefully so that they will grow up to become the citizens that are proud to be Americans and that all Americans can be proud of.

All of this can be done if it is done with love and committment by the parents to their children. Therefore, this can be often best accomplished when the parents share the same goals and have common religious beliefs that helps them to get help and encouragement from each other and also from the religious community and from all the other resources that are available,

My father was born in India, to Lutheran Missionaries. He came over to America when he was 13-16 years old. To me, being a member of an American family means being able to have the freedom to be yourself, being able to go to what ever school you wish to go to, what ever church you want to, and being able to have the kinds of friends you want to.
Also it means having the freedom to being able to speak your mind, without being shot at, or killed...
We have the ability to say no, if we want to, or yes if we want to, and have it accepted.

To be an American Family, means (to me), to take full advantage of every opportunity granted to you, while living in this country. It also means to embrace the hardships, and life lessons of those who came before us. As an African-American, I cannot, nor will I ever allow my children, to take for granted the rights and the privileges afforded us, through the life, blood, sweat and tears of our forefathers and mothers.
An American family, should be one that upoholds the truth and sets forth a standard of integrity, equality, righteousness, faith and love, regardless of where they or their ancestors came from.
An American family should be one that embraces the notion of respect for another's opinion, whether in agreement or not, while still remaining true to the foundation for which it believes in.
Lastly, an American family is a family that sticks together through all storms and times of peace...and a shared blood line does not necessarily make you a family. It's the love, and willingness to open one's heart that creates a true family.

well, I answered this question and saw it posted and now it is gone. So I guess if whoever is controlling this site does not like your answer they take it off. I put a lot of thought into my answer. Durned if I will do it again, or buy the book, or see the movie.

I came to America from Taiwan almost 10 years ago. I married an American and have a mixed race baby. Having an American family means a few things to me.

First, it's open-minded and diversed. My husband and I grew up in very different backgrounds, and we work hard to understand each other. We fight, but we make up. We understand that there are things that we don't understand about each other.

Second, an American family is very loose. Kids leave their parents when they grow up (and sometimes, before they really grow up). Living with elderly parents is not a merit but a shame in this country. The family members are usually spread out in different States all over the country.

Third, an American family does not have generation related authority or respect. Kids can call their parents, uncles, aunts, and other elder generation members by name. Parents don't seem to enforce discipline. The good thing about it is that family members are more "equal" and "friendlike", but sometimes it gets on my nerves because I am not used to this attitude.

Well, these are just my point of view.

Quote : What does it mean to be an American family?

My answer :

I have always lived in America. So, what an American family means to me may be different from other people. I have relatives dating back to the Indians. Also relatives that were born across seas. Some how they met and made a family. So, to me an American family means you have a diverse background. You are exposed to more cultures and backgrounds than any other country. In American some families have it rough. But I noticed American families even the poorest of the poor have it better off than most families in 3rd world nations. At least here families are able to stay and grow together easier. I am not saying every American family is perfect. We are far from that. But I think American families have alot more opportunities to improve their lives and the lives of their families. I feel Americans families are close in their own ways. In America, the families mix tradition and cultures. We bring cultures together that wouldn't be allowed somewhere else. American families can believe in different religions and still come together and celebrate for a family dinner on Sundays. American families are open minded and allow their children to go out and experience things on their own. Let each other make our own choices in life. But have a helping hand along the way if a relatives needs it.