Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

10 Tinseled Topped Dysfunctional Family Holiday Films to Enjoy On Chrismas Day

Dysfunctional families dread rituals and Christmas or Hanakkuh is a ritual. In the dysfunctional clan, you gather, eat ritual foods and explode. That blast can be triggered by ritual infusions of alcohol, prescription drugs, long-simmering anger, and secrets.

In the film August Osage County, you get a cattle prod version of what family rituals can detonate in dysfunctional families. The ritual is a funeral and Meryl Streep plays the pill-popping mother from hell, Julia Roberts plays one of the angry family members who both hate and love this dying, drunken, 60’s, minted mother. The secret is prescription drugs. 

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In the film August Osage County, you get a cattle prod version of what family rituals can detonate in dysfunctional families.The ritual is a funeral and Meryl Streep plays the pill-popping mother from hell, Julia Roberts plays one of the angry family members who both hate and love this dying, drunken, 60’s, minted mother. The secret is prescription drugs. 

Osage County is one of the nine picks for Best Dysfunctional Family Holiday film. I also favor Katy Holmes is Pieces of April, where she shows herself to be a highly talented actress. She plays a comic- the anguished role of a goth daughter& least favorite child trying to pull off the holiday for her suburban family and dying mother  (award-winning actress Patricia Clarkson)in a drab New York walk up.  This is actually a film with a surprisingly happy ending and is a cult film that will cheer up everyone nearly normal and  dysfunctional families

In” A Merry Friggen Christmas, one of the final films Robin Williams did, this tells the story of Boyd Mitchler’s struggle of dealing with his eclectic family of misfits. When he realizes he left the presents at home, Boyd and his estranged dad (Williams) make the 8-hour drive together.

  Here are the other 9 

 Have a Merry Christmas- share joy and watch movies 

10 Tinseled Topped Dysfunctional Family Holiday Films to Enjoy On Chrismas Day

Dysfunctional families dread rituals and Christmas or Hanakkuh is a ritual. In the dysfunctional clan, you gather, eat ritual foods and explode. That blast can be triggered by ritual infusions of alcohol, prescription drugs, long-simmering anger, and secrets.

In the film August Osage County, you get a cattle prod version of what family rituals can detonate in dysfunctional families.The ritual is a funeral and Meryl Streep plays the pill-popping mother from hell, Julia Roberts plays one of the angry family members who both hate and love this dying, drunken, 60’s, minted mother. The secret is prescription drugs. 

images_20141216-184443_1.jpg

In the film August Osage County, you get a cattle prod version of what family rituals can detonate in dysfunctional families.The ritual is a funeral and Meryl Streep plays the pill-popping mother from hell, Julia Roberts plays one of the angry family members who both hate and love this dying, drunken, 60’s, minted mother. The secret is prescription drugs. 

Osage County is one of the nine picks for Best Dysfunctional Family Holiday film. I also favor Katy Holmes is Pieces of April, where she shows herself to be a highly talented actress.She plays a comic- the anguished role of a goth daughter& least favorite child trying to pull off the holiday for her suburban family and dying mother  (award-winning actress Patricia Clarkson)in a drab New York walk up.  This is actually a film with a surprisingly happy ending and is a cult film that will cheer up everyone nearly normal and  dysfunctional families   Here are the other 9 

 Have a Merry Christmas- share joy and watch movies 

Oscar Winning Dysfunctional Devil Mother From Hell- East of Eden

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The holiday season is when nearly normal family- happily gather. Dysfunctional families feel uncertain dread .

They ponder -do they even want to go ? Do they really love certain family members ,like them or just hate them?. Should they take 2 Zanex to face relatives they despise or stock up on wine as a house gift to themselves ?

 Dysfunctional families have a sense of ambivalence- a love hate relationship with parents and or siblings.  Daughters and sons who had a distant, abusive Mom may still love her.  At the same time, however, these adult children recall the splintered and miserable childhoods they endured with internal strife and feelings of anger towards their older Mom or Dad. Similarly, sisters who have been abused or even molested by a brother often feel the contradictory impulses of love and loathing.

A good example of brother-to-brother ambivalence on the holidays is Cal in Steinbeck’s East of Eden , played by James Dean in the brilliant classic film. 

He both loves and hates his twin brother Aaron for being the favorite child. This ambivalence leads to him introduce Aaron to their mother ,who he also loves and loathes.A Monster, she abandoned them as babies and is now a Cruella deVil Madame at a Salinas whorehouse.

 

A remake of the film was planned  starring Jennifer Lawrence of the Hunger Games. If the film is remade she may reprise Jo Van Fleet’s Oscar winning role as Cathy ,the demon mother, who Cal both loved and despised.

When Does the Nearly Normal Family Morph to Dysfunctional?

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Nearly normal families of all types are close-knit, well inte­grated, highly functioning, and sufficiently resilient. Aging nearly normal families are the same. Aging family members can communicate well enough. They accept differences of opinion as an inevitable, normal part of deci­sion making or, in some cases, as opportunities to expand their individual thinking, thereby enabling them to make better-informed deci­sions. They lock arms they encounter a crisis.

 

However, when they face the crisis of their aging parent needing care, healthy aging family’s  become dysfunctional. Never expecting this, although they were already involved, they are stunned by the crisis and forced into action. Adult Children are caught in the vise grip of an elder’s deterioration, or supporting a progressively disabled older relative.  These baby boomers can be confronted by the exhausting overload of long-distance care. This, never-before-experienced stress forces them to work as part of a team to help the older person. They are usually a team but this new life transition is not welcomed like the birth of a baby or a wedding. They know how to move from the role of a Mom to a grandmother. But facing a role of a parent to their parent leave them in terrifying uncharted territory with no GPS.

 

Read the new chapter on care managers working with the nearly normal family in an aging crisis. Get the new Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition  now– or out in Kindle on Amazon in November (to keep up with technology)

 

 

 

What Is The Nearly Normal Aging Family? Definition

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Most aging families are “Nearly Normal”. They are healthy, not dysfunctional, still have flaws but are knocked off balance by losses sustained when older family members decline or die, caregiving takes up huge blocks of family members’ time, or significant family relationships and continuity disappear.

These losses can disrupt even a healthy family. A “nearly normal” aging family can be righted if they have historically been compatible, cohesive, productive, and stable.

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