6 Ways to Maximize Family Happiness
At our girls-only and boys-only summer camps, we recognize the value and importance of community. A recent post from Intelligence for Your Life helps prompt ways that we can strengthen family bonds. The whole article is at this link, with useful bullets below:
Make Family Priority
- Make sure the kids know their family’s history.
- Studies show that kids who know their family history (good and bad) have higher self-esteem, are more resilient, and are better at handling stress.
- Hold weekly family meetings.
- You can make changes before minor glitches turn into major problems.
- Eat meals together.
- Set up your living room furniture in a circle.
- People are much friendlier when they’re seated in a circle because they can easily look at and talk to each other.
- When it comes to setting behavioral consequences, the kids should have a say.
- When kids have a role in picking their own punishment, it gives them a sense of ownership over their own behavior—to own up to what they did, and are more likely to change bad behavior.
- Copy each other’s body language during disagreements.
- Mimicking body language puts you on the same physical level and reduces feelings of tension, power imbalance, and resentment.