Many times family members are pulled in several different directions and it is difficult to get everyone together. By scheduling regular family meetings (say once a month), you will have the opportunity to get everyone together to discuss family matters and to just catch up with each other. Although these are family members, I strongly encourage you to run your meetings as such, meaning there is specific agenda and one person talks at a time. Prior to the meeting, ask each family member if they have anything that needs to be discussed at the family meeting so that it can be put on the agenda. Here is a sample agenda:
-Start by sharing any pertinent family news that others may not be aware of (sister scored a goal at a game, grandma is moving, aunt is pregnant, etc).
-Discuss any family issues that are occuring and any unresolved issues from previous months. This can be anything (a sibling annoyed by "someone" going through her stuff, an upcoming family vacation, the need for extra help with lawn care, holidays, etc)
-Decide, as a family, how to solve the issues. This may include establishing new family rules or modifying new ones (such as no going through family members belongings), deciding on a vacation destination or activities to do on vacation, how the extra chores will be handled, who will do what holiday preparations, etc. Be sure to have someone taking "minutes" (notes) of the meeting to ensure no one can claim they didn't know what their responsibilities were.
-Close the meeting and then do something fun as a family.
If you hold regular family nights, the meeting could be held just before family night or even as a part of it. The idea behind the meeting is that succssful families work together and working together means being on the same page. The meeting allows everyone to get on th same page.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment