In fact, she was always told, "Your mother, Esther, was your disgrace, and you were hers. The time will come as no one save a woman can" (III, 21-23). Miss Barbary never allowed herself to see Esther as her niece, only as an object that disgraced her sister, and herself since she had to take care of her. In that same vein are the Smallweeds. The entire family is dysfunctional, starting with Joshua Smallweed, the grandfather. This old man cares about no one, not his wife (who is senile), or his grandson or granddaughter. He doesn't care about them at all, let alone the people he lends money too. To them, he just jacks up the interest so that is all people can pay, that way, he basically gets a payment from them every month for the rest of their lives. All of this shows the failure of families, but there are some rays of hope in this dark world.
There are families that make it through Bleak House as a whole, families that help and care for one another. The first is the books namesake, Bleak House. John runs it, and at the beginning has Esther, Ada, and Richard to look after. Towards the end of the book though, Richard leaves, along with Ada, but Charley comes in. The house still has an open invitation for Richard and Ada however, so it has not abandoned them. Esther even tries to take Jo in, but he didn't want to stay. It goes to show that these people care for one another unlike most of the other families in Bleak House. Although not quite a family, but rather a group of friends, is Mr. George and Phil. George has taken in Phil, a man with minor mental disorders. He treats Phil in a very humane and nice way. George even takes in Jo when he is dying of smallpox, and tries to comfort him the best he can. "We are naturally in the vagabond way here You are welcome to a quiet corner of it for the boy, if the same would meet your views" (XLVII, 31-34). It shows that he goes to lengths to convince Allen that he and Phil have something in common with Jo, therefore Jo is welcome.