All families will experience their fair share of turmoil. You might have issues with things like these: conflict between siblings; discipline problems that reoccur; fights over property or space; resentment over everyday aggravations; discontent over family roles; conflict between parents and kids; rebellious teens; and so forth.
There might be a pretty simple solution that can help you address all of these issues. Conduct regular family meetings. It's a fairly easy activity that will help your family reduce (if not eliminate) a lot of the everyday hassles you contend with.
What are family meetings, and how do they help?
The idea behind family meetings is simple: You wouldn't expect a corporation to be run very effectively if everyone was off on their own little island and no time was ever set aside to get together and discuss the business of what was going on. Yet most families go months or even years without any type of formal gathering to talk about issues related to how the family is functioning.
When these maintenance issues are neglected, it can have an adverse effect on family relationships. Conflict brews over everyday annoyances. Members of the family may start to resent one another over things that would otherwise be minor and insignificant. Holding regular family meetings can provide a means of addressing these grievances before they blow up into major disputes.
Will my teen sit through a family meeting?
If you have a teenager, you're probably thinking, ?My kid is never going to sit through this.? But you might be surprised. Teens are actually some of the biggest advocates for family meetings, because they provide a way for adolescents to negotiate family rules. It gives them a venue to express their opinion, and helps them feel as though you're treating them more like an adult.
Below are a several tips which will help you use family meetings to address family problems:
1. You should conduct them on a regular basis. A weekly or bi-weekly schedule usually works best, but a monthly meeting can also accommodate the needs of most families.
2. These family gatherings should merge a business-style environment with a fun and laid-back setting. For instance, many families take turns selecting a different 'chairman' for each meeting. They may go over a list of discussion points as if it were a board-room meeting. But they also will order pizza or enjoy some ice cream to make it fun and enjoyable, and an activity that the family will look forward to.
3. They should be conducted during good times and bad, not just used as an emergency tool whenever problems bubble up to the surface. If you call a meeting only when something's wrong, they start to feel like a lecture session rather than a meeting, and will begin to take on a negative tone.
So if you sense that not everyone in your family seems to be on the same page, or if you find yourself spending a lot of time addressing recurring conflicts with your children, give family meetings a try. You just may come to wonder how you ever lived without them.
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