What does Family Portrait mean?

Pink: Family Portrait Meaning

Album cover for Family Portrait album cover

Song Released: 2002


Family Portrait Lyrics

Uh, uh, some deep shit, uh, uh

Momma please stop cryin, I can’t stand the sound
Your pain is painful and its tearin' me down
I hear glasses breakin as I sit up in my bed
I told dad you didn’t mean those nasty things you
said

You fight...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Sep 30th 2012 !⃝

    This song has like a double meaning feel to it. (I believe that's how P!nk intended it to be) This was written from the perspective of a child (young P!nk) about how she felt and what she saw in her family throughout childhood. She wants to do anything to get her family to be normal and happy. 'I promise Ill be better, mommy Ill do anything' How she really doesn't want her family to fight and can feel their pain when they do. 'Momma please stop crying, I can't stand the sound. The pain is painful and is tearing me down' P!nk wants her life to be like how it is in her family's portrait and how she doesn't want her daddy to leave. P!nk is also explaining to the world what a child feels if they have parents who fight.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 11th 2007 !⃝

    This song is about her parents fighting and splitting up. She wants them to stop, 'Cant we work it out? Can't we be a family?' She thinks it's her fault and promises to be better in hope that her dad won't leave, 'I promise Ill be better, mommy Ill do anything' She runs away and she doesn't want to go back, but she knows she'll have to. ' I ran away today, ran from the noise, ran away. Dont wanna go back to that place, but don't have no choice, no way.' She wants them to pretend that that they're a happy family like in their family portrait. 'In our family portrait, we look pretty happy. Lets play pretend, lets act like it comes naturally.' She wan'ts things to be normall and go back to the way they were. 'In our family portrait we look pretty happy. We look pretty normal, lets go back to that.' She remembers the night he left, 'Remember that the night you left you took my shining star?'

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 23rd 2007 !⃝

    This song is about not wanting her parents to split up/divorce and how they may look happy in their 'family portrait' or to the rest of the world when really they are not. Also about the innocence of a child during a separation 'I won't spill the milk at dinner', 'I'll do everything right', about the desperation of the child involved. How much they want their parents to stay together, they will do anything to have their family stay together.

  4. anonymous
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    May 23rd 2022 !⃝

    It’s simple. This song is about how her parents got divorced and it sucked like fucking hell. But she believes that they can work it out. She says she’ll be better, like she wants to fix it all. Which I know it can feel like it to the kids, but their parents have lots of stupid problems and they don’t have anything to do with them. I used to think that my parents divorced because they hated me, but it wasn’t because of me. I can’t only see that because of pink and I hope all you lonely and afraid kids never have to feel the way I did.

  5. anonymous
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    Jun 19th 2019 !⃝

    this song is about her parents going through a divorce and she just wants them to be a happy and normal family.

  6. anonymous
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    Nov 16th 2017 !⃝

    the song is about pink not wanting her parents to have a divorce and she wants to have there family back to normal like her family portrait when her family was really happy and they didn't have as many problems.

  7. anonymous
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    Feb 21st 2017 !⃝

    Pink has bpd so do i-''... People with bpd havent havent emotionally developed....its caused by a bunch of factors like dysfunctional parents for examples...and so pink is trying to show shes still a child emotionally

  8. anonymous
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    Oct 28th 2015 !⃝

    This song is about pink as a kid trying to stop her parents fighting.

  9. anonymous
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    Nov 15th 2012 !⃝

    In this context I dont unterstand the meaning oft worldwar 3 ???

  10. anonymous
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    Oct 30th 2012 !⃝

    This song is about her parents fighting and splitting up. She wants them to stop, 'Cant we work it out? Can't we be a family?' She thinks it's her fault and promises to be better in hope that her dad won't leave, 'I promise Ill be better, mommy Ill do anything' She runs away and she doesn't want to go back, but she knows she'll have to. ' I ran away today, ran from the noise, ran away. Dont wanna go back to that place, but don't have no choice, no way.' She wants them to pretend that that they're a happy family like in their family portrait. 'In our family portrait, we look pretty happy. Lets play pretend, lets act like it comes naturally.' She wan'ts things to be normall and go back to the way they were. 'In our family portrait we look pretty happy. We look pretty normal, lets go back to that.' She remembers the night he left, 'Remember that the night you left you took my shining star?'

  11. anonymous
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    Nov 1st 2011 !⃝

    what are the two meanings of family portrait in this song?

  12. anonymous
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    Oct 12th 2011 !⃝

    This song is about a devorce to show ppl how much it hurts that child no mather how hard they try to avoid it .

  13. anonymous
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    Mar 13th 2010 !⃝

    A lot of people forget, but this the song is written from a child's (a young P!nk's) perspective on her parents divorcing and always fighting. They split when she was quite young, around the age of 9.

    Her mum didn't stop crying for 4 days after P!nk played it to her. x

  14. pookie
    click a star to vote
    May 7th 2009 !⃝

    This song is about a sad little girl in a broken up family.
    Nobody understands what she is going through because in the pictures they look happy.I think she is confused she don't like seeing her mom cry and she wants her dad to stop yelling.she doesn't understand what happened to the happy days that's some knee deep shit.

  15. anonymous
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    Oct 3rd 2006 !⃝

    I haven't heard this song in a while but I beleive it's about a girl whose family just slowly falls apart but others don't see it because "in the family portrait, we look pretty happy" and the next line is what really makes you think its all bad at home coz it basically says that they r hiding it (lets play pretend act like it comes naturally)

  16. blink182chik
    click a star to vote
    Jun 7th 2006 !⃝

    It's about her parents divorce and how she was forced to grow up fast and look after her and her mum!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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