Are you familiar with the phrase, “the elephant in the room”? Imagine some people in a room, with an elephant in the middle of the room, but no one wants to recognize that the elephant is there. The people in the room talk about a lot of things, but no one ever speaks of the elephant.

The elephant in the family room is a good picture of family secrets. Family secrets are not things that no one knows about; the family knows, and often others do too. But no one talks about them or even admits to them, especially outside the family.