''A wonderfully optimistic and original book ... No doubt it will be extremely reassuring for readers and everyone will find some nuggets that are helpful to them'' Professor Susan Golombok''Helpful to anyone interested in learning more about their own families. I highly recommend it'' Dr Joshua ColemanFamily researcher Lucy Blake pulls apart our expectations about family and shows us how to embrace the messy, beautiful reality. What makes a good parent?Can sibling relationships survive to adulthood?Should love within a family really be unconditional?Wherever, whenever and however you learnt about family, it''s likely that you have unshakeable answers to these questions. In this revelatory new book, family researcher Lucy Blake shows that, whatever your assumptions are, they are almost certainly wrong and probably doing damage to your closest relationships.Blake looks at how the expectations we have affect and even hinder our interactions with parents, siblings, relatives and our child