Category Archives: Parenting

Parenting

This Is Us

Title: This Is Us

Date: 2016

Media type: Television

Format: Episode

Rating: PG – Parental Guidance Suggested

Audience(s): College Age, Adults, Parents, Couples, Families

Language: English

Source: Hulu, NBC

Film/Episode Summary: An American TV Series that is aired weekly on NBC, characters in a family find themselves venturing through experiences from childhood to adulthood, all the while trying to define what “family” truly means.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: The show introduces a family in the mid seventies, a white American couple who decided to start a family and ended up pregnant with triplets. Unfortunately, the couple lost one of the babies during the delivery. When the father was looking over the two who were healthy, he saw that one African American baby was next to them, and asked who he might be. When the father found out he was just dropped at the hospital, abandoned by his biological father, he took matters into his own hands and adopted the child as their “third.” When the family took the three newborns home, they decided to call them “The Big Three” one of the first types of dynamics within the family that the parents subconsciously implemented.

Source: Hulu, NBC

Contributor: Lillian Wiener

Parenting

Captain Fantastic

Title: Captain Fantastic

Date: 2016

Media type: Film

Rating: R – Restricted

Audience(s): High School Age, College Age, Adults, Parents, Families

Language: English

Source: iTunes

Film/Episode Summary: Captain Fantastic is about a father that raises his children in a way that is different than from what most people would consider normal. He and his children live out in the wilderness and fend for themselves. Only occasionally does the dad go into town to get supplies. Everyday dad and the children vigorously train to be fit and study things that most kids in college would struggle with. The kids are wickedly smart, but don’t know much about interacting with the rest of society. The family decides to journey out of their unique home when they find out their mother has committed suicide. The father harsh but loving parenting is apparent throughout the whole film.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: This film shows the harshness and strengths of traditional style parenting. It also drives home the point that even if a family looks different, this doesn’t mean that it cant function. This movie is a raw example of family conflict and resolution of differences.

Places to view: Youtube, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play, Itunes

Contributor: Anthony Torrez

Families in Society, Human Growth and Development, Internal Dynamics of Families, Interpersonal Relationships, Parenting

Freaky Friday

Title: Freaky Friday

Date: 2003

Media type: Film

Rating: PG – Parental Guidance Suggested

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

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: Tess is a middle-aged widow getting remarried soon, and is in constant conflict with her 16-year-old daughter Anna, who is unhappy about her mom trying to replace her dad with her new fiancée, and fits the typical angsty teenager stereotype.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: I would use this clip to teach about conflict in a parent-child relationships, and how understanding of “the other side” aides in resolving that conflict. We think we can look at someone from the outside and know their life and know what is best for them but sometimes we understand a lot less than we think we do, and need to get very close with that person’s life to understand what they are going through.

Places to view: Youtube, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play, Itunes 

Contributor: Sarah Kuboushek