30 Family 157 What family are you? According to the dictionary, a family is <a group of people who are related to each other, especially parents and their children=. However, the term is becoming more and more difficult to define as there are different types of families to be considered. Here are some of the most common. Married nuclear family : This is the family with a father, a mother (or same-sex married couples), and one or more children, who may be biological or adopted. If the two partners are not legally married, we can speak of unmarried or cohabiting family. This type of family remains the most common type of family in the UK and in the US. Single-parent family : It consists of one parent with one or more children. It is the case of a person who never married or the consequence of a divorce or death of the partner. This type of family accounts for 23% in the UK and 30% in the US. Childless family : It is a <DINK= family, double income (two partners) and no kids, who may have pets and may occasionally enjoy taking on other people9s children, like nieces and nephews. The percentage is around 20% in the UK and 29% in the US. Foster and group-home family : It is a kind of substitute family provided by foster parents and institutional childcare workers to children who have been referred by the court or government agencies. glossary blended: misto foster: affidatario income: reddito merge: unione stepfamily: famiglia allargata 1 READING WRITING What type of family do they represent? 1 Bob and Silvia are two lawyers. They like spending time with Bob9s brother9s children. They have two dogs. ...................................... Blended family or stepfamily : It is the result of the merge of two separate families (two divorced partners or one divorced parent with another one who has never been married), when at least one parent has children. It9s now estimated that 1 in 3 families in the UK are a blended family, while in the US the percentage is around 16%. Same-sex partners Same-sex marriages have been allowed in the UK since 2014 and since 2015 in the US. Italy has recognised samesex civil unions since 2016. 176 Topic 8 " CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES 2 Peter is ten and lives with Linda and Walter who are not his parents but take care of him since his real parents have had problems with the law. ...................................... 3 John is 16 years old and lives with his parents who live together but are not legally married. ...................................... 4 Lisa is 14 and lives with her mother who was widowed two years ago. ...................................... 5 James is four years old and lives witwh his mother who is married to a man who has a daughter. They live together. ...................................... 2 WRITING Write a short text following the prompts. Talk about a family you like (not your own): where they live, who the members are, how you know them, why you like them as a family. 3 WRITING SPEAKING GROUP WORK Create a table to compare British, American, and Italian families. Use any previous knowledge you have or the net. Talk about: meals, time spent together, family members, free time, celebrations, and holidays.