Family policy
There is no such thing as the Dutch family. In the Netherlands, a married man, his wife and their daughter are a family. So are a single mother and her son. But two men and their child are a family too. This is a result of how the family is defined in Dutch family policy: ‘Every household of one or more adults who are responsible for the care and upbringing of one or more children.’
The majority of families in the Netherlands provides a healthy child-raising environment. Family relationships are characterized by stability and harmony, according to both parents and children. Parent-child relationships tend to be based on mutual affection rather than parental authority over the child. There has been a shift away from the authority-based family towards the negotiation-based family.