As the days get longer and brighter and our kids start to venture outdoors again as the non stop deluge of the Victoria winter gets broken up with warm and sunny afternoons, we get ready to celebrate BC's first "Family Day".  My thoughts and heart begin to ponder the ever-changing nature of what family means to each of us.  To some, it is the ones related by blood and DNA, to others, the friends that choose to stand by our sides through the worst of storms, to others, it is their family of faith or community.  And for some, it is an opportunity to come to terms and accept that the ones who should have stood by us, who promised to be family, are all too often the very ones that cause us the most pain and feelings of loss and betrayal.  What makes a family a family?  Step-children and blended children and multiple entanglements and ever-changing partners mean that the stability children counted upon to be their anchor and foundation as they learn to navigate life is in short supply. As the average family, however it looks, finds it harder and harder to see themselves as home owners.  The stability that came with knowing unfailingly where one belongs and where the epicentre of your own universe is, of running with the same band of kids through the same neighbourhood for the length of childhood, becomes a dizzying spiral, ever changing, with a revolving door of role models, none ever really trusted or around for more than a few years.  An upbringing full of followers, profiles, on-line friends and chimera lurking in cyber space.  Renting makes it so much easier to pick up and move to the next location, with so much less fuss.  How much harm are we really doing to our kids?  Parents don't even think that there is anything wrong with changing partners every few years, that it is normal to start dating at 9, that it is silly to expect chastity from teenagers so not to even bother setting limits.  I find myself reeling in a bit of shock, thinking of how fickle these kids will be as adults, and more than a little afraid when I look at the sleeping innocence of my beautiful ones.  I want so much more for my babies.  I want them to know the joy of being able to wake up with their children every single Christmas morning, not every second.  I want them to celebrate 20, 30, even 40 year anniversaries.  I want them to know that their partner meant every single one of their vows, including forgiveness.  Are we doing them a favour by not fighting harder for permanence.  So many people seem to have completely given up on the dream of home ownership, at a time when the combination of low and stable interest rates, with a slight dip in overall prices in our fair city, alongside a fantastic level of inventory are making the jump to home ownership so much more feasible.  It's a perfect storm that's sure not to last as the economies worldwide find their way forward in the modern marketplace.  Click here for great spring , family activities:  www.chatterblock.com   Click here for information on home buying:  www.angeliquetroyer.ca