Category Archives: Interpersonal Relationships

Ethical Issues and Dilemmas, Families in Society, Health and Human Sexuality, Human Growth and Development, Internal Dynamics of Families, Interpersonal Relationships, Parenting

Roseanne

Title: Roseanne

Date: 1989

Media type: Television

Format: Episode

TV Season-Episode: Season 2, Episode 10

Category: Parenting

Rating: G – General Audiences

Audience(s): Parents, Couples, Families

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: This episode centered around Darlene, the middle child in a family of 5, age 13, who is a self described “tomboy” who likes playing sports and watching sports on tv with her father. Darlene must write a poem for school, prompting her mother to share her love of poetry with her . Darlene’s poem ultimately wins the contest and is selected to be read aloud by her at the school’s “culture night”. Roseanne is insistent she attend. Darlene does want to do, afraid that her poem actually “sucks”. Roseanne and her husband disagree. Darlene is made to attend. Roseanne seeing, a bit of herself in Darlene is moved to tears by the poem as she hears of her daughters pain of being stripped of agency, feeling isolated and alone.

Clip Description: This episode is a touching and realistic example of a mother trying to find communion with the child she has the least in common with. It is a clear example of the bidirectional nature of agency and power between parent and child, showing the continuing theme of resistance in parent-child interactions with opportunities for growth and communion

Places to view: Amazon Video

Contributor: Lisa Erbes

Families in Society, Internal Dynamics of Families, Interpersonal Relationships, Parenting

The Kids are Alright

Title: The Kids are Alright

Date: 2010

Media type: Movie

Format: Complete

Category: Families in Soceity, Internal Dynamics of Families, Interpersonal Relationships, Parenting

Keywords: family types (LGBT), family relationship, conflict management, parenting styles

Rating: R

Audience(s): Adults

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: The teenage children of a maried lesbian couple decide they want to meet their biological father. The children’s mothers each gave birth to one of the siblings using the same sperm donor. The children get the mans information from the sperm bank and reach out to him. The three spend more and more time together which one of their mothers does not like. As the children’s father spends more time with their family a trist developes between one of the children’s mothers. Eventually the family comes back together and mend the damage that was done. The father is then blocked out by all of the family members. The movie ends with the family taking the elder daughter to college.

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Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: What rights does the sperm donor have in regards to the children (i.e. when he takes the daughter out on the motorcycle though their mom forbid it)? How should the family deal with the revelation of the mother’s infadelity? Is the father to blame for the harm that befalls the family? Why?

Contributor: Ian Brunzell-Looney

Families in Society, Family Life Education and Methodology, Interpersonal Relationships

Independent Lens: Twin Girls

Title: Independent Lens: Twin Girls

Date: 2014

Media type: Documentary

Format: Complete

Category: Families in Society, Interpersonal Relationships, Family Life Education Methodology

Keywords: family types (adoption), communication, cultural and global perspectives

Rating: NR

Audience(s): Children Under 12, High School Age, College Age, Adults

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: Independent Lens looks at a case where twin girls were adopted in China to 2 different families. The families were not informed of each other nor did they know that the child they were adopting had a twin. The families met by chance in China after adopting their children and figured out that the girls were twins. One family lives in Norway and the other in California, the girls remain in correspondence and have met on a few occasions, both express feelings of incompleteness without the other and share many traits.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: What ethical questions does this raise? In regard to who or what raise those questions? What does this say in your opinion about the international adoption process? Should the families tried to keep the girls together or was separating them right? What does this say about the influence of nature and nurture on a child’s development and personality?

Contributor: Ian Brunzell-Looney