What exactly makes a family functional or dysfunctional? First you have to decide what is normal. What one thinks is normal the other may not. I believe spanking your kids if they are naughty is normal, and some may view that as not normal. I think everyone has their own opinion about what exactly is normal and whether or not their family is functional or dysfunctional. Take the book The Glass Castle, which we are reading in our English class right now. The author grew up thinking her life was the norm. If you are in a family and that is all you know, then to you it's going to be the right way and only way. Even though while reading it, it appears to be the most dysfunctional family to others, including myself. At a young age, three I believe, the author was making hot dogs on a stove and was burnt and ended up having to have skin grafts. She thought it was a normal thing to make a hot dog on the stove. She was hungry and her mother let her do it before, so big deal. Right? I as a mother couldn't ever imagine my daughter making any kind of food on a hot stove with boiling water. The author and her brother and sister basically had to fend for themselves even though their parents were very intelligent, but lacked the ability to be a parent. I assume they thought they were doing the best for their children by letting them experience things and figure out right and wrong on their own. Most parents try to shelter and protect their children from the bad, but they seemed to throw them at the train. It's amazing how those kids survived!
So just because one person feels something is normal, the other may not. Maybe the normal ones are the dysfunctional ones. Who are we to decide?
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