Who's In Your Family?

You know those family stickers people put on the back of their cars? You can get a little mother, little father, kid playing soccer, baby, even your dog and cat. I find them entertaining to look at while I'm stuck in traffic.

But they get me thinking about how we define family, who we put up there on the back of our car. My daughter, when talking about her family, sometimes includes her grandparents and her cousins, and always includes our cat Mara, who died two years ago. Those people would not all fit in our car, and it would be really bad if we toted around a deceased animal. But in some way that is clear to her, they are part of our family...and I guarantee that if we had family car stickers they'd need to be up there.

So what makes up a family? The people who drive in our vehicle? Our children, grown up and moved away? The friends who join us every year for Thanksgiving? How about single people--they may be the primary person in their car, but their sense of family surely includes folks who don't happen to drive around with them all the time. Who would you need to include in your family stickers?