Medical Info: Could Your Family Benefit from a Family Meeting?

A practical tip that will help your children learn organizational and communication skills as well as help your entire family deal with our heavily-scheduled lives: have a weekly family meeting. Have it sometime early in the week (e.g. Sunday or Monday night), provide a fun snack, and discuss your family's calendar of events for the upcoming week. Allow each family member a chance to discuss something and avoid criticism, interruption, etc. As your children "follow your lead", they will not only learn the importance of planning ahead but will also learn to further appreciate the issues involved in being a family (as opposed to simply thinking that the world revolves around them - not that any of our kids ever act that way!) One final word: make sure the meeting is fun and brief. If your entire family doesn't look forward to these times, your efforts are sure to fail.