Family meetings, even when they are little

Do you ever feel like everyone in your house is on a different page? Heck, maybe not even in the same book?!

Recently I was feeling like this and decided that we needed to implement regular meetings in our family. So, naturally I scoured the internet looking to see what others were doing and go from there. One I idea I liked was to have someone take notes and keep it fairly structured so everyone knows what to expect and gets a turn to share. 

I soon found my self at the computer creating a simple template for doing just that. I initially made it for our family, but decided others might enjoy the simple structure of this as well, so I tweaked it to make it more universal and now you can use it too (link to grab your free copy below)

One of the things I found to be the most important about meeting together was making sure everyone is heard. Ask questions and let everyone get a chance to answer. Or just have time for each person to say whatever they have on their mind.

I think that our kids tend to feel like they aren’t being heard, or that their voice doesn’t have as much weight as the adults. Setting aside this time can make a huge difference in how your kids feel and communicate. Even if all you get from them is a request for spaghetti for dinner this week, if you add spaghetti to your meal plan, they will feel heard.

One thing I quickly learned in trying this with younger kids is to not expect it to go as you planned. Our first meeting lasted for about 6 minutes. 6. Whole. Minutes… and that was with ice cream!

They will get more into it as you continue, and they know what to expect, but in the beginning don’t push too hard. A quick meeting and everyone leaving happy is WAY better than one where you checked all the boxes and no one enjoyed it at all.

Some of the things I included in the guide are:

The word of the week. I thought this was a fun idea to build vocabulary. Maybe take turns pickling a word each meeting.

Question of the week. Just something you can ask to get everyones point of view. It can be silly or thought provoking, or just a ‘would you rather…’ question.

Best. Worst. Weirdest. This is something we like to do at dinner every night, so it just made sense to include it here. Simply what was the best, worst and weirdest part of your week? You’d be surprised what comes up from such a simple question.

Do make sure to schedule your meetings and stick to them. Pick a time that works for everyone and put it on the calendar! Once a week or once a month, whatever works best for your family.

I’ve added the Family Meeting Guide to my new subscriber library, so if you are a subscriber you can log in here to download your copy and if not you can sign up here and the details will be sent straight to your email. (be sure to check the email button below)

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