Oh man. I remember being at my friend's house for forth of July. Her younger sister broke a glass Disney figurine in the kitchen. I braced myself for the yelling, the guilt tripping the party to be over, but none of that happened. Her mother did yell, but only to keep her sister from moving because she wasn't wearing shoes and there was broken glass. Her sister apologized, helped mom clean it up, and that was that. I went home going, was that a real family!? Is that how it's supposed to be!??

I come from an object-oriented household. Can relate.

I experienced this for the first time when I met the family of a guy I was dating in college. I didn't know how to act around them at all.

My wife's family is functional. Both parents have a small union pension now, the siblings all get along. No poverty events or disasters in their past. It's great to see.

My side is like a bunch of raccoons fighting over a grape, all the freakin' time. The atomics had divorce, two abject poverty events, 1 house fire disaster, and we all bear the scars.

I joke that I was a charity case and I Stockholmed her into marrying me !

When I was around this age, my best friend told me he liked coming to my house because my family was normal. But, I liked going to his house because sometimes they walked around naked. (This was the 70s, a lot of weird shit was happening then.)

Where is this 'functional family' you speak of? 🤔

My stepmother didn't half go off when I said we weren't like a normal family.