Family Dynamics

Family dynamics are different in every single family. As I was saying to a friend the other night “what is a normal family”? Normal is just a concept. Everyone has their own baggage, their own history, their own family relationships from the same family. It is what makes us all unique.

Our kids went to LREI from k-12. There is an annual event called Love Makes A Family. I always loved it. Kids post photos, poems, and stories about their individual families through the walls of the school. The student body is unique to most NYC school private schools. It is extremely liberal and open to everyone and anyone. It is engrained in the culture. It is one of the reasons we sent our kids there.

The photos are of two Moms, two Dad’s, Uncles and Aunts and Grandparents all living with very different family units but it is each of those students family; their foundation.

Family dynamics have shifted dramatically over the past decade. More is accepted (thank god) and nobody except older generations who are stuck in a time or are not open-minded, care as much about how people live their own life.

We saw two films in the past week. One is Roma, an absolutely gorgeous visual film about the director’s family and his parents separation, when he was a teen in Mexico City. He tells the story through the eyes of their maid. It is a layered film that looks at family dynamics including wealth, poverty and class welfare. It is fantastic.

The other film is Shoplifting. This film is also about family dynamics and people struggling to get by. This family is connected through random events. Great film as well.

Both films have stuck with me. We are living in different times then we were twenty years ago and seeing filmmakers expose and tell stories of how lives are being led is thought-provoking and based on political anger against each other these days, these movies are a very good thing.