Having a family meeting is important if you want to discuss issues as a family. It’s even more critical if you want to start changes at home. The problem is that some of your children might not like having family meetings. They don’t understand what’s going on. If you need to discuss an important topic, you should host the meeting. These tips are useful in ensuring a smooth flow of the conversation.
Be clear about the agenda
When you call for the meeting, you should be clear about what you’re going to discuss. Everyone should know the plan before heading to the meeting. For instance, if you intend to go on a trip, your children should know that it will be the primary discussion. They might want to research the places they want to recommend for you to visit. You also don’t want to scare them. Sometimes, the idea of having a family meeting is to discuss something bad.
Try to make it fun
Set a positive mood throughout the meeting. Make it as fun as you can. Even if you’re going to talk about something difficult, you should maintain an air of positivity. You can even incorporate game nights into the meeting.
Don’t impose and ask for suggestions
Even if you can host the meeting and preside over the flow of the conversation, you can’t impose. Otherwise, your entire family will lack interest in joining the meeting. Instead of telling them what to do, you can ask for suggestions from them. They will respond, and you can discuss if it’s worth doing or not. You open the floor to conversations and decide later if you want to give people time to think.
Give recommendations
If your children don’t suggest anything, you have to prepare yourself to give recommendations. For instance, if you want to discuss maintaining cleanliness at home, you can suggest solutions. It starts by distributing responsibility among everyone at home. You can also talk about working with a company offering furniture disposal services to help you with trash disposal. Once you bring these ideas up, the rest of the family might also have something to say. Make them feel comfortable to speak up. Again, the goal is to determine the best steps moving forward.
Reward your children
If you successfully finished the conversation, you can reward your children. Treat them with something sweet or cook something nice. It’s a reward for their excellent behavior during the discussion. It also motivates them to continue attending family meetings in the future. If the discussion became quite tense along the way, you need to end it on a positive note.
Family meetings are essential. It doesn’t matter if you have a difficult time having conversations. You should maintain an open line of communication to avoid problems in the future. You would rather be honest with each other and express your anger as a family than pretend that nothing is happening.
