Of course it is, the support, parties, barbeque, booze, crazy times, good times and bad times......all that being said..... The truth of the matter is that we all are essentially alone, came alone and will departure alone. There is no work around it

Family is your respite from the cold cruel world where one will aways find love, acceptance, guidance, support and forgiveness if needed.

I developed and lived by this ideal when I was pregnant with my first child. I was going to show the world how it should be.

37 years later ... it would be nice to get everyone in the same room for a picture.

Yes, yes it is. That important and more.

Yes. But, family is what you make it. Blood relation is not a prerequisite to being family in my book.

No. I enjoy them when they're around. Don't miss them when they're not.

Support and acceptance is important. Whether or not you get it from you relatives is a different story.

Depends on the person my family is pretty important to me I can also say that just because somebody's related you doesn't mean you have to like them

Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean folks you are related to.

I suppose it depends on how well off you are. In many cultures, family is an integral part of their life and every member plays an important role. For example in rural China, every person plays a part in family life: the parents work, the grandparents take care of the children.

It's important, obviously. The question is whether it's a source of more pleasure than pain.

It is, even when is a example of what you don't want to be.
As social animals, we learn a lot from copying others and the first others that we met is family.
Modern society gives us a lot of time and facilities.
Try to cook a meal from really natural ingredients from the scratch, then clean your house without vacuum cleaners or automated stuff and see how much time those simple tasks take.
With modern times a human can exist without a family after some years of life. And even in many countries the economic safety net that families gave is substituted by state welfare. So in a very modern way, for rich and with good welfare countries family can have its importance reduced to basic education and early childhood care.
But as a species and for most of the world family is still the base of references, education, cooperation in time management and economic safety network.

My one brother means the world to me. My other brother couldn't care less about us so we hardly ever talk anymore. I raised them both and I always had "family values" but you can't expect anyone, not even family to feel or believe what you do. We write our own rule books and nobody elses.

Support is important. The ability make others want to help you if you need stuffs is important. Family often helos you even if you don't have the ability to attract others who can or will but not always.