two or three thoughts about the family

Family: all those persons descended from a common ancestor; group of living things with common characteristics and a common source: die Manns, the Simpsons, die Simons ("Heimat"), die Kreitmeiers, nicht umsonst spricht man von "Familienbande"...
An old English saying:Familiarity breeds contempt.
"Family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape.
Far from being the basis of the good society, the family, with its narrow privacy and its tawdry secrets, is the source of all our discontents."