What Disrupting Western Family Ideals Means to Me

I love being a dad. I take my responsibility as a dad and stepdad incredibly seriously.

I also know that so many American families don’t have a dad around, for so many different reasons.

So when Black Lives Matter says “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable,” I know they’re not discounting dads. They aren’t ripping apart families.

What this says to me is that each family defines itself. It does take a village to raise a child. Blended families, single parent families, grandparents raising grandkids, aunts and uncles, siblings… even the Jesus we Christians look to wasn’t a Western family ideal. So it’s okay to challenge the “norm” and care for each other beyond the usual setup. We need to support all these families.