The Family Meeting

Last time we talked about the value of chores and I challenged you to identify two to three chores that your child could do.  So how do you present the idea of doing the chores to your child?  That is where the family meeting can come in handy.  What is a family meeting?  It is a meeting designed to bring families together to enhance communication and make sure things are on track.  It is much like a staff meeting in the workplace.  Some families only do these meetings when something is wrong.  While it is a good forum to discuss family issues, who wants to go to a meeting where the news is always bad?  Family meetings should be a way to connect with each other. 

There are a number of different ways to structure your family meetings.  Elaine Hightower and Betsy Riley have developed a wonderful resource on this subject called "Our Family Meeting Book:  Fun and Easy Ways to Manage Time, Build Communication, and Share Responsibility Week by Week"  which published by free spirit Publishing.  It contains tips for successful family meetings, meeting agendas with suggested discussion topics as well as other helpful tools and forms.  We started family meetings in our family about a two years ago.  Our children get excited about the opportunity to discuss matters as a family and do a fun activity.  It has enhanced our overall communication as a family and as a result, has led to a smoother running household (most of the time).

Do any of you do family meetings?  If you answered yes, what type of structure or format do you use?  If you said no, why not?

Comments

[anne jolles]

Family meetings are a regular thing in our home. They certainly have gotten more loosely defined as my children have gotten older and grew into teens. One thing that seemed to work very well was to ask everyone to start out the meeting by sharing one thing that was going right in our home or in their life. This started the meeting off on a positive note and got everyone thinking about what they were grateful for... Everyone can think of something that is going right even on our worst days!
Good luck...
Great blog,
Would love for you to visit me at www.annejolles.com and then just enter my blog!
Thanks,
Anne

[Jill Urbane]

Thanks for the feedback Anne. That is usually how we start our family meetings as well. Another idea is to have each member say something nice that each of the other family members did for them that day or week. Boy, the smiles they get when we point out those kind acts. You are right, it is a great way to keep things positive and start the meeting out on a good note!