An Introduction to The Orbital Family

What is an Orbital Family?

Many years ago, I remember learning in school that there were different kinds of families: Nuclear Families were comprised of a Mother, Father, and children and considered the “normal” standard. Ok, that wasn’t blatantly stated but certainly implied. Then of course there were Extended Families, where grandparents or other family members live with the rest of the family. Of course it was noted that this wasn’t the usual arrangement. Finally, there were Blended Families, which is the case when two divorced/widowed/etc. people marry and bring their children into the new relationship to “blend” them together, a la Brady Bunch. These little categories always left me thinking that this cut and dry way of thinking about families left a lot to be desired, and a lot of people who didn’t fit into a category.

Fast forward several years, and I found myself at 19 years old with my parents announcing that they were separating. It was never something I could’ve foreseen through my child’s eyes, but the turn of events that occurred over the next several years brought forth a new idea of what a family could be—the Orbital Family.

Any family can be an Orbital Family. It doesn’t matter how many people are in the family, where they live, or how they live. It doesn’t matter if they’re married or divorced, widowed, happy or sad, with or without children, together or apart. You may already have an Orbital Family, and not even realize it. So, I return to the question originally asked—What is an Orbital Family?

Imagine if you will that every family is its own solar system, and every individual is a planet in that system. Consider this to be true even if some people in the family don’t get along (or hate each others’ guts) or aren’t always physically present. What then, is at the center of the solar system? What is the sun? In an Orbital Family, the center of the solar system is the CENTRAL COMMITMENT of the family.

Ok, after that statement we need to step back and consider something—why would a CENTRAL COMMITMENT be important or relevant to a family? What difference would that make? To answer that, we need to take a look at our assumptions about what a family IS and what our expectations are. Stay tuned for more!