As you may have seen on TV or in magazine articles, during June we celebrate National Family Month. This is a good time to reflect on your strengths as a family and what needs improvement. Whether your family is traditional or non-traditional, whatever your family looks like, we encourage you to take the steps in keeping it strong.
Some ways to improve your family dynamics are: Commitment, Communication, and Closeness.Commitment:
* Parents making time for your kids, whether that is by attending a sporting event of theirs or making time to do something fun with them. Make the commitment that you are going to put them first! (http://national.macaronikid.com/ has great suggestions for family friendly activities)
* Building trust – following through with promises or agreements made.Communication:
All families communicate differently. Finding a healthy way to communicate in your family is vital to help strengthen family connections. Key things to communicate about:
* Daily plans, day to day activities
* Important decisions or crisis moments.
* Admitting problems and addressing them, instead of ignoring them.
* Conflicts – healthy families don’t allow the children or adults to bottle their anger or extreme emotions, they talk about possible solutions to the problems and work together.
* Parents making time for your kids, whether that is by attending a sporting event of theirs or making time to do something fun with them. Make the commitment that you are going to put them first! (http://national.macaronikid.com/ has great suggestions for family friendly activities)
* Building trust – following through with promises or agreements made.Communication:
All families communicate differently. Finding a healthy way to communicate in your family is vital to help strengthen family connections. Key things to communicate about:
* Daily plans, day to day activities
* Important decisions or crisis moments.
* Admitting problems and addressing them, instead of ignoring them.
* Conflicts – healthy families don’t allow the children or adults to bottle their anger or extreme emotions, they talk about possible solutions to the problems and work together.
Closeness
Spending time together! Healthy and strong families spend time together, whether that is by playing games, taking walks, enjoying similar hobbies. The closeness is imperative for attachments and bonding. A simple daily morning pow-wow or a good night story can go alot further than you think.
Not just physical closeness, but also emotional closeness. It is important for families to show affection towards each other. No matter what age your children are — 3 or 17, they need the reassurance that their parents love the. Strong families have their own special ways to show that they care about each other and love each other. What creative way can you show your children (or spouse) that you love them?
Early influences are fundamental to our individual development. The life with your family is very important; it plays a major role in your children’s development into the person they become.
If your family is broken, damaged or in need of some tweaking, let us know if we can do anything to help!Best Wishes,
Jennie
Jennie