Family Meetings Matter for Working Moms

Having regular meetings together as a family encourages you all to be aware of what’s going on across the whole the family, what needs to take priority for the week and build understand and teamwork between you all.

The content of the meeting will be as unique as your family. One week, you might meet to discuss an upcoming schedule that is going to be even more crazy and hectic than usual and how you’re all going to deal with that. Another meeting might be to determine the best ways to solve a nagging problem or to plan a night out with the whole family. Your meetings can be anything that they need to be, but the one thing they should not be is a chore. Be sure to balance serious issues with fun – what you’re looking to create are positive interactions! Some fun ideas:

• Allow a family member to decide where the family will go and what they will do for one meeting. They may decide to take everyone to a favourite restaurant, a movie, make a pizza at home night, etc.
• A meeting might be to help a family member out with something – a homework problem, a craft project, a school situation, relationship – show them they’re important and you all want to help
• Introduce the "Family Value" for the week. Pick one from your list of Family Values and spend some time exploring how you might all really major on that value this week
• Take the whole family to the grocery store or mall for some shopping (or work together on some other household task). It will build an understanding of teamwork, money, budgeting, etc.
• Introduce a craft that the whole family can work on together. Think about one where each person can contribute to ensure the overall success and everyone can be praised for their contribution.
• Learn a new skill together, such as trampolining, photography, baking, drama… anything that will bring you together where you’ll have fun!

When you make a conscious effort to “formalize” your family meetings and make them really matter in your household, you’ll soon start to see how trust is built, connections are deeper, communications are smoother and more effective an overall, the family will thrive even more!