Most people grew up in dysfunctional households - often damaged by well-intentioned parents. Some children experienced a little dysfunction, and some quite a lot. Many other writers seek to enlighten readers about childhood emotional wounds, and provide understanding and acceptance of them. The Joy of Dysfunctional Families seeks the same but with an added invitation to accept whatever characteristic dysfunction you currently "enjoy" and not to take yourself so seriously. Yes, you may have experienced pain and discomfort growing up when you did not receive what a child needs for proper development. Despite your history, do you have to give away your joy? What keeps you from seeing the absurdities in your life? Can you change your history by being stern? Why can't you laugh? Even with your suffering, the Joy of Dysfunctional Families seeks to put the "fun" back into dysfunction!In this book, the Joy of Dysfunctional Families - we are able to poke fun at our vulnerability and character flaws. In this self-help joke book, we learn through absurdity. Here we get to laugh at what is so unlaughable. Humor also lets us explore very uncomfortable thoughts and memories.

Is there a silver lining to growing up in a dysfunctional family? Twenty-four survivors recount their stories—and the strengths forged in the chaos. Living in a dysfunctional family isn’t easy. But while you can’t choose where you come from, you can choose the lessons you take away. Bestselling recovery author Karen Casey looks at stories of people who grew up in dysfunctional families and “the good stuff” that can, ironically, come from the experience. She interviews survivors who emerged from the fires of turbulent households affected by abuse, addiction, or other problems, and reveals how they came to process their often-harrowing personal trials and, against the odds, triumph over their difficulties—using skills they honed in response to their childhoods. In The Good Stuff from Growing Up in a Dysfunctional Family, Casey reveals the stories and the skills they developed to live more creative and fulfilling lives, and not just survive but thrive. “Using her interviews as groundwork, she explores the benefits that result from surviving in a dysfunctional family, including resiliency, perseverance, a sense of humor, forgiveness, kindness, and the ability to discern real love.” —Publishers Weekly “You just can’t go wrong with Karen Casey.” —Earnie Larson, author of Stage II Recovery

Thousands of books have examined the effects of parents on their children. In All Joy and No Fun, award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior now asks: what are the effects of children on their parents? In All Joy and No Fun, award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior tries to tackle this question, isolating and analyzing the many ways in which children reshape their parents' lives, whether it's their marriages, their jobs, their habits, their hobbies, their friendships, or their internal senses of self. She argues that changes in the last half century have radically altered the roles of today's mothers and fathers, making their mandates at once more complex and far less clear. Recruiting from a wide variety of sources—in history, sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology—she dissects both the timeless strains of parenting and the ones that are brand new, and then brings her research to life in the homes of ordinary parents around the country. The result is an unforgettable series of family portraits, starting with parents of young children and progressing to parents of teens. Through lively and accessible storytelling, Senior follows these mothers and fathers as they wrestle with some of parenthood's deepest vexations—and luxuriate in some of its finest rewards. Meticulously researched yet imbued with emotional intelligence, All Joy and No Fun makes us reconsider some of our culture's most basic beliefs about parenthood, all while illuminating the profound ways children deepen and add purpose to our lives. By focusing on parenthood, rather than parenting, the book is original and essential reading for mothers and fathers of today—and tomorrow.

In The Joy of Parenting, two acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) experts provide parents with the tools they need to cope with disruptive and oppositional behavior, acknowledge that they don't have to be perfect, learn to recognize normal childhood transitions, and alleviate their own anxieties to become more responsive, flexible, effective, and compassionate parents.

It is estimated that as many as 34 million people grew up in alcoholic homes. But what about the rest of us? What about families that had no alcoholism, but did have perfectionism, workaholism, compulsive overeating, intimacy problems, depression, problems in expressing feelings, plus all the other personality traits that can produce a family system much like an alcoholic one? Countless millions of us struggle with these kinds of dysfunctions every day, and until very recently we struggled alone. Pulling together both theory and clinical practice, John and Linda Friel provide a readable explanation of what happened to us and how we can rectify it.

My book, Secrets of a Dysfunctional Family, is inspired on a true story about the struggle of three sisters’ determination to overcome the odds of drama as children who also were physically, mentally, and emotionally abused and were betrayed by their family. Trying to understand and cope with the hurt, the sisters couldn’t understand why someone who was supposed to care, love, and protect you would do the unthinkable. What the sisters went through as children and the lifestyle they had to grow up in because of what others decided to do to them took a drastic impact on their lives and also the reasons why one sister as a senior in high school, at seventeen years of age, left home as a loner to seek refuge after being abused, disowned, and abandoned by her parents.

In this unique blend of self-help and moral philosophy, perfect for fans of Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project or Dan Harris’ 10% Happier, talk-radio host Dennis Prager shows us that happiness isn’t just a value—it’s a moral obligation. When you ask people about their most cherished values, “happiness” is always at the top of the list. In this enduring happiness manifesto, Prager examines how happiness not only makes us better people, but has an effect on the lives of everyone around us—providing them with a positive environment in which to thrive and be happy themselves. Achieving that happiness won't be easy, though: to Prager, it requires a continuing process of counting your blessings and giving up any expectations that life is supposed to be wonderful. "Can we decide to be satisfied with what we have?" he asks. "A poor man who can make himself satisfied with his portion will be happier than a wealthy man who does not allow himself to be satisfied." Prager echoes other political commentators in complaining that too many people today see themselves as victims; he submits that the only way to achieve your desires is to take responsibility for your life rather than blaming others. If you're willing to put some thought into achieving a happier outlook, you will find plenty to mull over in Happiness Is a Serious Problem.