Bill H, why do I get the feeling you are one of those Child-Worshippers that we were complaining about?
And any two or more people can be a family-it’s how you make it.
I like kids. I would like to have kids, someday. But if I did have kids, they would not be the end all and be all. They would be brought up to behave, and I would not drag them to functions that weren’t for children. D’uh. God gave you a brain-use it, dammit.
Apology accepted.
Guinastasia wrote
Well sure. If you choose to define the word, you can include your chairs, old newspapers, or even your cats (as someone actually did earlier) if you like. But if you want to define a word, make up a new word; don’t hijack a well-accepted one.
I am neither broken nor miserable, I don’t have a disorder that should be addressed by anyone, and I really don’t think that staying away from something I don’t like being around is ‘extreme avoidance behavior.’ You wouldn’t say the same thing if I went out of my way to avoid other things that are just as irrtating to me, like say, banjo concerts.
I didn’t ask for your opinion on my mental health or whether or not I might need to get some kind of therapy, so don’t be too shocked when I say your unsolicited anlaysis is unwelcome and unwanted.
The word “typical” explicitly notes the existence of atypical families, which is apparently beyond your capabilities.
Or did you mean to indicate that you’d apologised for your inability to read plain English? I missed it.
Bill H., are you being deliberately disingenuous, or are you honestly persisting in your belief that a family requires children? Did the other definitions of the word mean nothing to you?
No one’s saying that you, your spouse and your kids aren’t a family. However, denying that someone and their spouse are a family is … well, insulting.
If Guinastasia can’t “choose to define it” (which she didn’t to begin with), then you, Bill H. cannot delete the definitions that are in the effing dictionary.
Please reread the definitions of family. You’re being extremely insulting and offensive to a) those of us who the government will not allow to be legally wed b) those couples who cannot have children and c) those couples who choose not to.
Grow up, and realize that the world doesn’t revolve around you or your family, my friend. You have got to realize that you’re contradicting your own OP–you bitched because childfree people don’t “recognize” your children, yet you refuse to recognize other folk’s family units.
BillH, I’m still hoping you’ll answer my question, since I truly do wish to understand where you’re coming from. 
Did you honestly not get the core (and what should’ve been very obvious) point that people have changed from a couple to a group of people that includes children and is distinctly different from a stand-alone couple? The fact that you can toy with the word does not make the concept go away.
And, I’ve never said a word about gay people not being included in that definition, or their children.
BillH
What the hell is your problem? Why do you insist on insulting people without children? Did you read the entire post? Obviously not. If it’s one thing I absolutly cannot stand, is people that only read and respond to parts of posts that help their argument and completely ignore information that clearly prove their argument false(i.e. the other definitions of “family” that you chose to ignore)
You’re definition of family is one of the definitions in the dictonary. Not the only one.
Are you that empty of an individual that you have to have your entire identity depend on your wife and children? Is that why you cannot fathom any family other than a nuculear one? Because that’s what it’s looking like
So, then BillH is a family with 3 kids somehow more of a family than one with two? Because the actual number of members within a family seems to mean a great deal to you.
Now there’s a familiar analogy. Where were you during my age restrictions thread?
So, BillH, are you stupid, lazy, or deliberately being an asshat to push people’s buttons? Your refusal to acknowledge the other definitions of family is self-serving and ridiculous, and it destroys what little credibility you had in this discussion.
Besides, you can’t very well jump up and down screaming that a couple and a family are different, yet keep insisting that you’ve never said homosexual couples weren’t families. Either a committed couple without children is a family, or it’s not, regardless of the couple’s sexuality. If you’re going to be an assmonkey, at least be a consistent assmonkey.
While we’re on the definitions of family, please feel free to call my late grandfather’s third wife and explain to her that we’re not family. I mean, we’re not related by blood, and that marriage ended 20 years ago, and we’re sure as hell not parents and their dependent children, so we must not be family. I’m sure Grandma’s response would be a more polite version of my take on the subject: Fuck you. Fuck you up the ass with a sharp stick, you small-minded twatnugget.
If you want to complain that people aren’t accommodating the fact that your family has changed, fine. Bitch to your little heart’s content. But people are no more obligated to pander to your decision to have kids than they are to your decision to start running marathons, or only listen to Ravi Shankar records, or any other lifestyle change.
Let’s play etymological games, for fun and profit!
The word family is from the Latin familia - which basically means household. This includes servants as well as kin. In fact, the word came out of famulus, which translates as servant.
Family doesn’t simply mean 2 parents + children (their own, or adopted). The “traditional family” is indeed defined as a set of parents and their offspring. One must not forget, however, that it can also apply to a group of people living in the same household, under the same “head of the household.” It can apply to a clan. It can apply to blood-related people. It can apply to two childless adults who happen to have grandma living with them under the same roof.
No one “stole” a term here.
You’re pointing out that you went from a childless “stand alone” (??!) couple to a family (with a child). No one is saying that your family’s status (in the “state” sense of the term) hasn’t changed! Yes! You’ve gone from a household of 2 to a household of 3! That doesn’t mean you weren’t a family before!
I remember my mother once talking to me about the friends she n’ dad had when they were young (before I came along) - some they lost track of when they had me, others remained close because they had young kids too. Friends change according to life - sometimes you just don’t have things in common anymore - your concerns aren’t the same. Your lifestyle has changed, or theirs has. That’s just the way it is. That’s why many people lose track of each other once babies start arriving. People build friendships on common elements in their lives - friends change as life’s circumstances do. Concerns a childless family will have are different than those of a family with kids. It’s just the way the world works.
I don’t think it’s fair to impose kids upon hosts, especially not by saying it’s your God given right because they are people too. Don’t get me wrong - I don’t have kids, but I teach the little buggers all day long. I love kids. I don’t mind having them around. Sometimes, though, I just want to see a friend and catch up. If we can’t do that occasionally because the kids must always tag along, then yeah, we’ll lose track of each other. We won’t be able to share much in common anymore… follow?
I blame the expression “we wanna start a family” for this whole thread. Yep. It’s that good old phrase causing it all - people always say it when they’re tryin’ to have kidlets. “starting” a family… Eh.
On the flip side, I’ve just received a card from a friend telling me that they’ve just added their first bundle of joy to their little family (her words, not mine).
So it was okay for you to hang around adults when you were a kid, but you can’t exhibit the same tolerance now that you’re an adult?
You know, BillH, I’m more than a little insulted that you’ve decided to negate my family simply because my husband and I are
childless. W
You know, BillH, I’m more than a little insulted that you’ve decided to negate my family simply because my husband and I are
childless. W
You know, BillH, I’m more than a little insulted that you’ve decided to negate my family simply because my husband and I are
childless. W
BillH - two people with two kids are
(a) a family with four members, consisting of:
(b) a couple with children
The two states are not mutually exclusive.
It is both healthy and correct to continue regarding them as a couple. They are still a married couple of adults.
As others with kids have pointed out - either in this thread or the other kids/no kids thread - is is both normal AND important to continue placing emphasis on the marriage, and the two parents as separate individuals, not just “Mother family member” and “Father family member”. (Or Mother and Mother2, Father and Father2, depending on your style of family… 
)
You know, BillH, I’m more than a little insulted that you’ve decided to negate my family structure simply because my husband and I are childless.
We’ve been together for over 23 years and our family includes not only his parents, who choose to live with us for 4-6 months a year and immediate blood relations but also a large extended family, including two godchildren that are very much part of our lives.
How dare you arbitrarily dismiss us simply because we don’t fit your sterile little nuclear unit. How dare you imply that simply because I’m infertile, I cannot be part of a loving caring family.
Although I was initially sympathetic towards your OP, I am rapidly reaching the conclusion that you’re just a smug jerk.
I was not trying to redefine the word “family”, Bill H-in fact, if anyone is doing so, it’s YOU, when you keep insisting that a couple without children is not a FAMILY.
What about those whose children have died? Or what about Siblings? They’re family. Sometimes we consider friends as family. My grandmother’s neighbor, and best friend, Josie, would be an example-I’ve known her all my life, and she’s considered to be family.
And I have some blood relatives that I can’t stand.
shrugs
Whatever. But you know, it would be nice to know the CONTEXT of your complaint. Where do your friends invite you that you cannot take your kids? And do they ALWAYS want your kids left at home, or only sometimes?
More details, please.