One day Nani and Lilo's social worker, Mr. Bubbles comes to the door. It is obvious to him that Nani is not a suitable caregiver for Lilo, but gives her a chance to prove him wrong. He explains that if she does not properly care for Lilo by providing her with the necessities she needs in life, Lilo would be taken away. Here we see the first function needed to maintain a family: physical care and maintenance. This is a huge factor in the raising of children and Mr. Bubbles tries to explain that this is what Nani needs to properly care for Lilo everyday. Nani makes the mistake of showing Mr. Bubbles that the house was unclean and unsanitary, Lilo was left dangerously unattended, and she was lacking any means of control over her sister. When Mr. Bubbles leaves, Lilo and Nani get in a fight. Here we see that Nani has no social control over her sister and that the problem needs to be fixed. Not only did Lilo disobey her sister by leaving school alone when she was told to wait, Nani could not even teach Lilo to behave properly in front of Mr. Bubbles. Another function that was clearly missing from Lilo's life was socialization of children. At school she would fight with the other children and bite them too. She was never taught how to act around other children and how to treat them with proper respect.
Eventually both Nani and Lilo begin to see the problems within their family. Nani sees that she is failing as a parent, and needs to show Lilo proper care. The next day, Nani decides that the first step for progress would be to find Lilo a friend. Thus, it would teach her to socialize with others and teach her some responsibility. This is where Nani shows a positive step in the functions of the family with the addition of a new member through adoption. Nani takes Lilo to choose a new dog. Lilo is thrilled and names the dog Stitch. Little do they both realize that Stitch is not a dog but instead an alien, who is need of discipline also.
