The melting pot where each individual is formed, but also the nucleus of communal life, the family is today a crucial institution of society. However, the current statistics show less, and later marriages, in addition to an increase in divorces and in reconstructed and one parent families, with young people becoming autonomous later as a consequence of these changes. In the face of this, what points of reference should be taken in order to construct the indispensable family policies needed by our country ? With regard to filiation, parental authority, marriage, divorce, cohabitation, and the inheritance and protection of children, how do we adapt the law to these new social realities ? Irène Théry, a sociologist, and author of Démariage, presents in this work an analysis of the state of the family and of private life today, and puts forward the foundations of a new and ambitious step for France.