Family Tree - I don't think we're in Kansas anymore

I was helping a child with her homework (yes I am allowed around children, especially when academics is involved) and found that I was doing alarming amounts of revisionist history on the fly. It was okay, because this is not my child so my white lies of simplicity are of no consequence to her. It was a simple family tree exercise to show how there are all sorts of nuclear families. Awesome right? I totally agree! We happily sat there with crayons, calling out names, debating whether a dog should be listed as her sister, daughter or omitted altogether. (In case you are wondering, we put the pooch (and fishes) on a bush next to the tree.) After a few revisions she had a wonderful tree she proudly tucked into her notebook and off she went.
However after the assignment was done it still nagged at me. She was from a pretty straight up family, one divorce. I on the other hand, am a product of many different marriages and divorces. Well technically, I guess I am the product of a single marriage....but have subsequently been subjected to all sorts of pairings. It seemed a challange, could I draw a diagram that represented the basics of my family history for 3 generations? Take a look, note that a double dash (/ /) denotes divorce. 

Keep in mind this is the second draft and I did some serious selective omitting of the people along the way. For example my own paternal grandparents and aunts aren't on the tree. Same for spouses of aunts/uncles, grandparents of divorced dads, etc. Sooooorry. :/ But the first draft wasn't even possible without rotating the paper in a circle. So this was the editted down version that was applicable to my life history.

A funny thing to overlay on all of this is the fact that if you ask me to list my family its a short one. As of today it is my mother, my father, and myself. That's it. That's what I consider "my family" to be. But if one were to be completely honest you would have to start listing some pretty funny relations. Technically I have a 1/2 brother and a 1/2 sister, and a step sister. After that we start to go off the deep end of descriptors and start listing things like ex-step-sister, 2nd cousin by marriage, ex-step-mother, etc.

But it does bring up a good point for discussion. In this day and age where a person's history can easily involve 2+ marriages, siblings by blood or marriage, friends that are closer than any family member - what is the approriate way to define your family? Is a family tree even something that can possibly be applied to today's families? I think the definition is different depending on whether you are talking legality or actual day-to-day living, but even then it doesn't look anything like a "tree", a bramble maybe. For example, legally my current father is not my father, he would be a step father. But if you ask me, he is my dad and we'll have to have a fight if you try and claim otherwise ;) And the man that was legally listed on my birth certificate as my father, was not even biologically related to me. And the man that was biologically my father, well I never really knew all that much. So you tell me folks. Is the notion of a "family tree" dead in today's society? I know that for me its never been important, but this exercise showed me that it isn't even relavent and potentially misleading. In no way can a tree represents who I am or who I love.
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