Family Foibles: Kim, Harley And The Kids

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EnhanceTV :: Educational TV :: Society & Culture :: Family Foibles: Kim, Harley And The Kids

Family Foibles: Kim, Harley And The Kids

*This program contains frequent very coarse language and adult themes*

Family Foibles is a series of five half-hour documentaries that examine contemporary Australian families. Each story revolves around a family confronting a problem. These range from the relatively benign issue of omission in the telling of a family history to domestic violence and the threat of family break-up.

Kim and Harley and the Kids, is a moving documentary that looks at how hard family life can be when resources are limited. Kim has four children including four-year-old twins. Her partner Harley is father to the youngest three kids and his heart is in the right place, though occasionally his fists aren't. They all live below the poverty line in a Ministry of Housing home in outer Melbourne.

Kim has Hep C, a result of heroin addiction while she was a homeless teenager, she suffers from erratic mood swings and depression contributed to her illness which can be tough on the family. Despite all this and their own difficult family backgrounds, Kim and Harley can imagine a better future even though constant crises including lack of food, threaten their optimism about life.

Kim and Harley face a constant struggle to keep the family together, clothed and fed. They regularly make the round of visits to welfare agencies, hock shops and doctors. But in dealing with these pressures Kim and Harley apply great resourcefulness, humour and resilience. But whilst determined to break out of the cyclic disadvantage of unemployment and social circumstance, they sometimes find their frustrations turning inward.

Harley finds work cleaning in a supermarket at night and for once hes able to give the twins a decent birthday party, with scooters and pony rides. Next day Kim picks up the bomb from the mechanics, hopeful that life is improving. But the car is a disappointment and Kim's mood swings with a vengeance. Suddenly, the finely balanced pack of cards, which is Kim and Harley's life, tumbles and for a moment the couple become their own worst enemy.

Life goes on however, and a few days later sees the family (literally) patching things up again as Harley plasters over the holes in the walls and the family finishes the day with a campfire BBQ in the backyard. We are left to reflect on the complexities of a family portrait which defies any simplistic interpretation of poverty.

(N.B. This documentary is not suitable for secondary students at junior or middle year levels.)

Details


Duration (mins)	30
Date of broadcast	17/8/2006
Series Title	Family Foibles:
Channel	2
Rating	(MA, Rpt)
Price:	AUD27.45 including GST

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