Especially around the holidays, we might be tempted to wish our families were more “normal.”
The following are real situations I heard this year…
A family locked their purses in their cars so a young family member wouldn’t steal from them again.
A grandma chose not to have Thanksgiving dinner because her granddaughter had recently been verbally abusive and aggressive with her, but her son didn’t believe his daughter would do that.
A father said it was too hard to be nice to his brother-in-law so he was just going to stay in a different room this year.
A mother was thankful that her daughter’s suicide attempt failed but had a hard time enjoying dinner with her still in the hospital.
SO, WHAT IS NORMAL?
The following statistics might make you feel like your family is more “normal” than you ever thought!
- Over 20 million Americans over 12 years have an addiction (and this doesn’t include smoking)
- Leading causes of preventable deaths are tobacco use, poor diet and physical inactivity, and alcohol-related accidents or illness
- Over 10% of children live with a parent with alcohol problems
- 42-45% of first marriages end in divorce. 60% of second marriages end in divorce. 73% of third marriages end in divorce
- The divorce rate has quadrupled over the past 30 years for those aged 54-64 years
- 16 percent of children are living in a “blended family” – a household with a stepparent, stepsibling, or half-sibling.
- 25% of couples fight about Facebook at least once a week (one in three divorces start as online affairs)
- Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. but for every suicide, there have been 25 failed attempts
- 40.6% of students report some type of frequent involvement in bullying – 23.2% being the youth bullied, 8% being the bully and 9.4% playing both roles frequently
- One in 5 women in have been raped, usually by someone they knew, often a family member
SO, is your family “normal?”
Were these statistics surprising to you?
Do you remember better times, or do you think that time has made our memories better?
Without mentioning names, do you have a “normal” story to tell?
In today’s world, the word “NORMAL” is very different from the days when I grew up.
I don’t believe today that normal applies to families, the world is a very complex place.
So, appreciate the unique fabric that weaves each family together and find the key element LOVE that keeps it together.
So nicely said, Dale!
I was six the first time I called the police because my mother had attempted suicide. She told me it was my fault because I had confronted her about her brother abusing us. She lived. She kept sending us to his home every summer for years.
Normal? No such thing.
Thank you for sharing! These types of problems are all around us so why try to pretend they’re not, right?