9 Father’s Day Gifts for Dysfunctional Siblings

Here are nine tips for dysfunctional adult siblings on Father’s Day this Sunday, June 16, 2024. Any holiday can be a nightmare for adult siblings from a dysfunctional family. They have to show up, yet they prepare for the daggers—either wielded by them or a fellow sibling.

1) It is a holiday event, not a family meeting.

If you want to discuss personal issues, make a date with your angry sister or brother.

2) Remember that Father’s Day is not all about you.

Keep a positive attitude for the sake of your aging parents, kids, nieces and nephews, and adult siblings if they are present.

4) Call every family member if the gathering is at someone’s home.

Do not exclude anyone. Again, this is to build a team effort.

5) Call ahead and arrange to split the bill if at a restaurant ahead of time-

again, team effort and no embarrassing credit card bargaining at the table only bring on more fights.

food fight at the party

6) Keep your alcohol in check.

You can’t control anyone, but you can control the alcohol and even change yourself. We all say things we may regret with lots of nervous drinking. 

7)If you  are a care manager serving midlife siblings caring for elders –

Suggest these rules and check out “Working With Aging Siblings” in Care Managers Working With the Aging Family 

8) Get one card from all and have each sibling sign it.

On Father’s Day, the best gift you could give is the message that you are a team of his children and that you all love each other, especially Dad.

9) Get one gift from everyone and split the cost

Again, team building makes it easy for every sister and brother. Have one sibling but it! But you say this will start a brawl????

10)An Easy, Fast gift on Father’s Day with Story Worth. A great idea for capturing elders’ memories that stops wrangling over which gist

StoryWorth. 

My daughter, who has a master’s in aging, sent Story Worth as a gift to her Dad for Father’s Day. He loves it. StoryWorth sends Dad a question that prompts him to write about his past each week. If he is not tech-savvy, have him write his memories out, and one sibling will quickly use the dictation on the 1 phone to email his story to Story Worth.

At the end of the year, your Dad plus the whole family bound book of all his family stories- an entire collection of recollections, an oral and written history of an older Dad that will be saved for all siblings and their children to pass on family history.  The prompts have brought many vivid tales of youth back to Dad.

,a gift from all the siblings.