Certainly if one reads Dickens one finds that England of the 19th century was far from familial; some of the materials out of the American Colonial periods show that the family was mostly an iron handed parent and rather aloof father. Just as there is no such thing as an ideal family, the fact of the matter is there never was. Instead, there were some great family experiences, and some tragic ones. The Myth of "Natural" vs. "Unnatural" -- For millennia, certain behaviors were either natural or unnatural based on the particular norms of the society in question. In certain tribes, for instance, marriage is acceptable at young ages, polygamy is part of everyday life, and homosexuality is encouraged among shamans of the tribe. The bottom line is that nothing is natural or unnatural, it is simply part of the morality of that culture/society at the time.

The Myth of the Self-Sufficient Family -- This myth...

"Family matters," "Only blood is thicker than water," -- when in fact, there are many times that we do not even "like" members of our family. In addition, families in the modern era are not usually large enough with enough depth that they can supply all our needs; just as a husband or wife cannot supply 100% of everything needed. Instead, we have many choices and yes, it is nice if some of those choices involve the support we receive from families, but it is not a given that all our individual needs can, or even should, be supplied by the family group.
REFERENCES

Holmes and Jermyn. (2004). Understanding Reality Television. New York: Routledge.

Skolnick, J. And A. Skolnick. (2006). Family in Transition. New York: Addison Wesley.