Yall are Harsh/ Felt bad for Cami

Just my opinions.

I think a lot of the hate on this board is too harsh. And that means something coming from me, because I rarely defend parents. They weren't perfect, and yes they obviously underestimated what it meant to adopt three children, whether from Russia or not! Because I agree with someone else who posted -- these three kids from Russia where actually not that bad. The boys had some tantrums but, I've seen some others who adopt from Russian/Eastern European orphanages, and those kids have much more severe emotional/behavioral issues. These kids seemed to want to adapt fairly quickly, and were open to the change and having a new family etc.

The mom was bizarre in that she just seemed to check out. It's too bad she's so distant.

However I feel the biggest failure in this movie is the way the parents seemed to neglect Cami after they adopted the kids. It's like she went from being the apple of her dad's eye to just an invisible sidebar. I know that young kids demand a lot of attention...but...I couldn't believe how the dad just seemed to turn off giving her any attention or warmth. Maybe it was the editing? But that wrenched my heart. I didn't like how Cami would mock Masha and the boys (or that time she kicked one of the boys over in the knees, wtf?) but I think we all knew it was really just because she was jealous of the attention they were getting. But the thing is...it wasn't just in her head...the dad really DID seem to stop paying attention to her.

Anyway hopefully after watching the movie, the parents will remember she exists and needs love and affection and attention still. And appreciate what it must be like to go from hero to zero after those new kids came in. And I do hope Cami and Masha ended up as friends.

But all that being said...to me, all families have their stupid dynamics and downfalls. This family did not appear particularly dysfunctional to me. The mom was cold, but the dad made up for that. These weren't mean wretched people, c'mon now. Maybe all the posters on IMDB came from miraculous perfect families...but...to me this family seemed right about average.