Most of us devote our lives to our families. We work hard to be the best spouse and parent we can be. When we start a family, many of us do not directly and actively think about why we want children or what we want to teach them.
It is easy to get swallowed by everyday life and become robotic rather than actively living according to our own goals. We want to teach our children morals and values and to help them develop their mental and physical potential, but sometimes this becomes an abstract idea rather than something we have a detailed plan for.
A lot of us know generally how we want to raise our kids, but how many of us can sit down right now and point out exactly what our parenting objectives are and how we fulfill them? It is extremely helpful, and often life-changing, to have a focused plan and a mission statement, just like companies do, to help remember parenting objectives and goals.
Each family member working toward a solid and focused goal creates family unity and cohesion. It creates an atmosphere in which each family member can speak up and evaluate themselves and their daily life. It builds close ties and opens the path for strong communication. It makes parenting and childhood easier.
Just like a company cannot be successful without a clear mission statement, a plan for achieving success, and methods for facilitating that plan, a family often feels stressed and overwhelmed when there is no clear and focused meaning guiding day-to-day life.
Here is an example of a family plan that you can take with you and adapt to what works best for your family:
- Create a family mission statement. Write down your objectives and the kind of atmosphere you want to create in your home. Cover the issues that are important to you. It can be helpful to work on it together as a family after the parents discuss it first. Use positive wording, such as “We speak calmly to each other” rather than “We do not yell at each other.”
- Every Sunday night, cook dinner together and discuss anything each family member wants to mention. Talk about the week ahead and how to make it a good one. Check in about work, school, and your relationships with one another.
- For larger families, give each child 30 minutes of alone time with a parent after the others go to bed. Sometimes it may be with one parent, but each child gets that time.
- Every school morning, have a one-song dance session to wake everyone up. Let a different person pick the song each day.
- Eat dinner together at least four times a week.
- Make Tuesday night an at-home date night for the parents. Have the kids in their rooms by 7:30 so the parents can share a romantic meal together.
- Make Wednesday night a social night for the parents. Mom goes out with her friends and dad goes out with his friends. Parents are people too and deserve to have fun.
- Make Thursday family game night.
- Make Saturday night a parents’ night out, even if it is something simple like walking in a park together.
This is just an example. As you can see, having a mission statement and a plan can really help create a healthy and cohesive family.
