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Very large families are a popular feature in films. Often chaotic, they are a vehicle for showing stressed, less-than-perfect parents. In Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin's character Kevin was famously forgotten by his family - left behind when they went on their Christmas holiday.

Cheaper By The Dozen sees parents battle with constant untidiness caused by their many children. "Lots of movies show the extreme, it's either the perfect family or the completely dysfunctional ones," says Helen O'Hara, deputy online editor of Empire magazine.

"In Cheaper By The Dozen they actually have a pretty perfect life, they have to deal with some messiness but their family is solid, the marriage is solid and they live in a gorgeous house.

"The film Parenthood in the '90s showed something a bit more. There were more varieties of parenting on display in that film, and they are dealing with interesting issues."

Parenthood followed the varying dilemmas faced by an extended family. There is the single mother dealing with her difficult teenage children, a father desperately trying to push his daughter into being a child genius, and the exuberant dad, played by Steve Martin, who lives chaotically with his growing family, making balloon animals and always taking things too far.

O'Hara adds: "There's a moment where Steve Martin's character is dealing with his son who is in a fast food restaurant and he took his retainer brace out to eat his burger and ended up losing it. He ends up having to search through the bins.

"It's ridiculous really, but there's a certain sangfroid in knowing the you aren't going to be any of those parents in the film - you're not going to make those mistakes."

在电影中大家庭是很受欢迎的元素，他们经常吵闹，是展现不够完美父母的载体。在电影《小鬼当家》（Home Alone）中，麦考利•库尔金（Macaulay Culkin）所饰演的凯文经常被父母遗忘，当他们外出过圣诞节时把凯文自己留在了家里。

《儿女一箩筐》（Cheaper By The Dozen）的主要剧情是父母一直在与众多孩子造成的不整洁作斗争。《帝国杂志》网站副主编海伦•奥哈拉（Helen O'Hara）称：“很多电影都在讲述一些极端情况，要么是完美的家庭，要么是完全不正常的家庭。”

“在《儿女一箩筐》中，事实上一家人有完美的生活，他们必须要处理一些混乱，但他们的家庭和婚姻是很稳固的，而且他们住在一个富丽堂皇的大房子里。”

“20世纪90年代的电影《为人父母》（Parenthood）向我们展示更多道理，在这部电影中，展出更多不同的育儿方法，而且处理的也是一些有趣问题。”

《为人父母》讲述了很多大家庭需面临的不同困境。其中，单亲母亲需要照顾正处于青春期的孩子；父亲逼迫女儿成为天才儿童；史蒂夫•马丁（Steve Martin）饰演一位过于溺爱孩子的父亲，会用气球做动物、而且经常把事情考虑的很远。

奥哈拉还称：“电影中有个情节讲述的是史蒂夫•马丁饰演的角色与其儿子在快餐店里发生的事，儿子把牙套拿下来吃汉堡，却把它弄丢了，最后他们不得不翻箱倒柜地寻找。”

“这真的很可笑，但只有当人们确保自己不会成为电影中那般父母时，才会如此冷静，希望大家不会犯同样的错误。”

（来源：中国日报网爱新闻iNews 编辑：丹妮）