Family cooperation while menopause treatment unfolds
Family roles often outlive childhood. Faber and Mazlish show how comparison, labels, forced fairness, and competition for attention can harden relationships between children—and continue shaping adult siblings caring for parents or negotiating family history. Menopause treatment is not addressed, but midlife health changes can expose who is expected to organize, soothe, or sacrifice within a family. In a season of transition, the book offers practical language for reducing rivalry without demanding constant harmony. Its deeper lesson is that every family member needs recognition as a separate person, not as the responsible one, difficult one, successful one, or permanent child.
About Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish expanded one overcrowded chapter on sibling conflict into an entire book, drawing on workshops and family stories. Faber also remembered being assigned the role of the “nonmusical” sister—proof that childhood comparisons can last for decades.
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