Nearly normal families accept differences of opinion as inevitable, realizing that settling family disagreements is not only an ordinary part of decision-making, but also an opportunity to expand their individual thinking, which enables them to make better-informed decisions. They “lock arms” to address the problems they encounter and have, in fact, locked arms to solve problems all of their lives. If you read Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck’s , East of Eden,the Hamilton clan is a nearly normal family as opposed to the Trask family where Mrs. Trask shoots her husband, abandons her twins at birth and starts a whorehouse. On Modern Family, The Emmy winning TV sitcom, the members are actually a nearly normal family with all their flaws but in the end, when difficulty approaches, they band together as a family.