Middle Eastern Family At Home On SofaYou may have family time planned for this week, but do you have a family meeting planned? Family meetings are a great opportunity to bring the family together and to get everyone on board with the family routines, responsibilities, rules, etc. If family members have input into family life, they may be more willing to contribute to the household. If family meetings are something you want to incorporate into your family life and calendar, here are a few tips to help make your weekly meeting a success: 

Keep it short:
Meetings are not productive when the participants lose interest part way through. Set the length of the meeting beforehand. Gage the appropriate length of the meeting based on the attention span of your 6 year old, 9 year old… and the 42 year old who has ants in his pants.

Have an agenda:

  • Every family member should be able to add at least one item to the agenda. If everyone feels like they have a say in the meeting, they may be more willing to cooperate and to participate. My kids recently added “too many chores” to the agenda for our family meeting. I felt the number of chores my kids were asked to do was reasonable. As a family we decided to schedule the chores a little differently. We agreed to spread them throughout the week.
  • Take a few moments to discuss the routine. This is especially important when settling into a new routine. Evaluate what is working and what needs to be tweaked.
  • Go over what is coming up in the family calendar. Are there any events requiring preparation ahead of time? For example, do you need to take an appetizer to the dinner party on Saturday night? When can it be prepared?
  • There are opportunities for every member of the family to contribute towards running the household. The family meeting is a good time to divide responsibilities among family members. For example, you could discuss the meal planning for the coming week. Specifically, what meals should we make? Who is responsible for making the meals? Who is responsible for cleaning up afterwards?
  • Is there a time during the week when the whole family is generally at home and life slows down a little bit? If so, that time would be a good time for a family meeting. If not, then add “next meeting date/time” to your agenda each week. Try to find a time during the next seven days when everyone in the family can gather again.

End it on a high note:
If you make your family meetings democratic and fun, your family may actually look forward to this family time each week. To add some fun, end the meeting with a game, activity, riddle or your cheesiest knock knock joke.