Family Reset

A family reset is when you create the opportunity for your family to come together and sort out what is working  for your family and what isn’t working during this pandemic.  This may sound terrifying but it doesn’t need to be.  Family meetings can be the best time and place for starting this process.  We aren’t talking about business like family meetings where everything is perfect and everyone sits quietly for an hour.   We are talking about a family meeting that is unique to your specific family. 

So……. if your family is full of loud, impulsive, talkers don’t expect silence but maybe there is a guideline where one person speaks at a time. The speaker can hold a special object that gets passed to the next family member whose turn it is to speak.  If your family is full of humans who fidget, let everyone fidget! It’s even Ok if you have a little one rolling around on the floor.  Or if you take the meeting outside and your children shoot hoops while you talk.  Make this time to “reset” as fun as possible.  Provide snacks and keep it short if you have teens who would rather do anything else than have a family meeting. You can also have no time limits at all. Design your family meeting so that it meets the unique needs of your family.     

Family Meeting #1 Topic: What does our family want to work on?

This open ended question gives everyone in the family a voice for what they think the family needs to work on.  Family members can write this down, draw a picture, or discuss it.  One family member should keep track of the topics for future discussion.  Choose one topic from your list and begin brainstorming during this first meeting if there is time.  If deciding on the family goals took up a lot of your meeting time, let everyone know when the next date is that you can begin working on the first goal.  

Sample family goals to work on:

• Being on time for schools and activities
• Clean rooms
• Screentime
• Family fun activities
• School plans, which can encompasses a remote learning plan or after school homework help
• Social opportunities–planning fun get togethers with friends, borrowing the family car, or organizing carpools
• Managing remote school and parents working from home

Family Meeting #2 Topic:  Check in on progress with goal number 1 and if you are ready, discuss goal #2.

Simply examining these areas of your family life that have been causing you stress will lift some of that pandemic stress you may have been feeling.  Once you begin to see some progress and accomplishment, life will become a little easier.  You will see the results of your work and you will also feel a little less chaotic and back on track.