Heading Home for the Holidays - with Your Dysfunctional Family?

Are you dreading the trip home for the holidays? Does your sister make fun of your life choices? Your father call you by your sister's name? Catheryn J. Brockett's book, The Dysfunctional Family Funbook can provide the relief you need!

Holidays can be wonderful.  And not so wonderful.  Delicious dinners – and insulting table talk.  Warm afternoons by the fire – and the desire to push a sibling into the burning embers.  Great gifts – and loud complaints about the ones you’ve given.  For those of us who head home for the holidays with a sense of dread, there’s relief! 

Catheryn J. Brockett’s The Dysfunctional Family Funbook!  Games & Activities To Keep You Sane Your Whole Visit Home is a must have for any family visit.  Ms. Brockett, an actress and comedienne, created this book when she “broke up” with her own dysfunctional family.  Designed to keep you sane while spending an extended period of time with family, The Dysfunctional Family Funbook is both funny and sincere.  There is a word search where you can look for words such as “healthy detachment,” “protection,” and “unconditional love,” as well as cryptograms and, trivia quizzes.  A game called “Ask the Inner Child” encourages adults visiting home to say something immature when relatives push their buttons – and   then blame it on their inner child!  A cut out frame allows you to bring (or draw) a picture of your therapist, and cut out cards (such as the one to Dad which reads “Thanks for not calling me by my sister’s name again today!”) allow you to say what you’re really thinking!

On a more serious note, Brockett offers advice like taking a walk or a yoga class to get you out of the house, a “Big Page of Affirmations” to keep you grounded, non-controversial DVDs to rent, and communication skills to allow you to navigate the usual emotional or conversational potholes. The Dysfunctional Family Funbook is a source of entertainment – which also seeks to keep you sane in an environment, which seems to be conspiring against you.  Make room for it in your suitcase when planning your next visit home!

Catheryn J. Brockett is a writer, actor and comedian who has performed theatre, improv and sketch comedy in New York and L.A.  She has read her original work at spoken word venues all over Los Angeles and currently co-produces a monthly show called Lip Service.

To purchase The Dysfunctional Family Funbook, click here.