Maybe you don't see the following as what famalies are like but it has some similarites as it relates to reality. There was a logitudinal film about 14 Britisk kids that I found interesting.

Seven Up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rQ1V7m0Kfs
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058578/

Wiki The Up Series consists of seven documentary films that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old. The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each child's social class predetermines their future. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films new material from as many of the fourteen he can get to participate. The latest film, 49 Up, was released in September 2005; filming for the next instalment in the series, 56 Up, is expected in late 2011 or early 2012.

Another web page about this topic that started in 1964:
http://www.amazon.com/Up-Seven-Plus-21-28/dp/B0002S64SC

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=h...s&ct=image&cd=3