Do You Have Family Meetings?
I am always interested in hearing how families communicate and what seems to work best for everyone. At AskApril, she discusses the importance of having family meetings and how they are beneficial to parents and teens.
Here is the short list – she goes into more detail in her entry, which is really worth the read.
- Family members get a chance to be heard.
- Family meetings re-establish the structure of the family.
- Grievances can be expressed in an ordered environment.
- Planning. Family vacations, rituals, events, and other matters that are on the calendar can be aired, planned and opinions heard in this forum.
- Forced communication.
Other than a quick Sunday conference on what’s for dinner for the upcoming week, we really don’t have family meetings – but as my kids get older, I am beginning to think it may be a good idea to start.
We have tried different variations on the family meeting but after a few weeks of good effort they usually fizzle out. Right now our strategy is to have each family member discuss two things that happened to them during the day. We usually do this a few times a week. Maybe we will try a more formal approach over the summer.