This article addresses the question as to how best to characterize the relationship between the image of families pro- moted in the Austrian General Civil Code (ABGB) and the empirically assessable living conditions of families in Austria. The focus is on the instability of families and post-divorce families’ living situations. The relationship bet- ween the normative requirements of family law and the empirical findings of family research is shown to be change- ful. Normative demands in part adhere to empirically and theoretically obsolete concepts (e.g. marriage and house- hold centeredness). In turn, legal norms generated in other areas prove to be ahead of families’ everyday realities (e.g. cooperative role divisions). Examples are drawn upon from the following areas: The arrangement of non- marital parenthood following separation, the settlement of post-divorce parenthood, and arrangements applying to the living realities of single-parent families and stepfamilies. Law will be increasingly called to attune to instability and discontinuous dynamics.