ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys how working adults think about family by considering what the typical family looks like, examining academic and popular notions of family, and exploring how family is built and maintained in the workplace. The normal family, as working adults now know it, is a kaleidoscope of structures, roles, and trajectories, with no predictable make-up and no clear message of what a family should be. Academic notions of family can inform clinical practice, shape policy and social justice activism, and serve as an indication of what is "normal". The chapter considers the capacity of the workplace to shape the meanings of family, the political implications of participating in the meaning-making process, and why employees might choose to excuse themselves from this process by keeping their family life private. Language Convergence/Meaning Divergence (LC/MD) is a useful theory for considering definitions of family as constructed by the workplace.
