Let’s call this meeting to order!
We hope you were able to take advantage of our nudge to travel a couple weeks ago because August is slipping away.
That sounds dramatic but this time of year moms can’t help but count the days.
Our brains naturally shift out of summer mode and start making mental lists of all that must come together for fall as the cadence of back-to-school sets in.
Rumor has it that Costco has had Halloween costumes out for weeks. This is what I’m talking about!
Might as well get your holiday cards ordered and uh, you bought your New Year’s Eve party dress during the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, right? Otherwise it’s going to cost you and we just went over budgeting last week!
Kidding! There’s no need for a dress. We’re too tired to stay up until midnight.
When you really think about all the things we cram into September-December, it’s bonkers.
Why do we do that to ourselves? And why am I sitting here worrying about it on August 18th?
Well, because that’s what moms do.
We spend valuable time worrying about things we can’t control, complaining about the way things are going and swearing (out of earshot, of course) that things will be different next time.
Mamas, next time is upon us!
We’re embarking on September – a.k.a. The Mom’s New Year (because mom life revolves around the school year). Embrace it and take control of what you can.
This week – the final week of our Grace in Family series – we’re exploring the family meeting. It’s all about family but will guide us right on into our next series, Grace in Productivity, because it’s time mamas… It’s time to get our ship together!
The family meeting is a game changer. Your littles will wiggle and your teens will roll their eyes the way only teens can. But trust me when I say that your littles are not too young to start this weekly tradition; and your teens will ultimately appreciate having their voices heard!
Access all 15 of this week’s resources in The List below to discover how to hold an effective weekly family meeting.
The List: 15 Expert Resources for Moms (updated weekly!)
6 skimmable articles to offer perspective on this week’s topic, 8 informative and/or entertaining podcast episodes to make the chores fly by, and 1 insightful video to inspire you to move forward with grace.
📖 6 Skimmable Articles
🎗 Awareness 🏡 Home 🗂 Productivity 🥗 Wellness 🧗 Growth 👨👩👧👧 Family
The Family Meeting
🗂 At first I was afraid (sing it with me!)
“At first, the idea of family meetings can be intimidating to children, especially teens. One reason is because children don’t know what to expect. They are likely unfamiliar with ways families meet more formally to plan, organize, problem-solve, and make decisions.”
Read Family Meetings Can Be Fun, Productive, and Meaningful by Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD
🏡 Our words have power.
“But our words only account for 7% of the overall message that is communicated, which means that 38% of what we communicate is done through our tone, and 55% is done through our body language.”
Read 10 Positive family communication rules for your home by Lori Radun
👨👩👧👦 What are your family values?
“Whether they’re explicitly stated or not, every family has its own set of beliefs and ideals. Those who make an effort to define and live out the family values they want to shape their home’s culture are investing in their family’s happiness and their kids’ future.”
Read 8 Family Values All Parents Should Incorporate, According to Child Development Experts by Ashley Abramson
🎗 What are the roles of your family members? They may be different from when you were a kid!
“Throughout the years, family roles have changed drastically. What was once deemed the norm, in terms of family roles, is no longer what’s considered typical today.”
Read Common Family Roles and How They’ve Changed by Gabrielle Applebury
🥗 Add family wellness to your weekly meeting agenda!
“This guide shows you 12 ways to improve family wellness this year. Create new routines that help you and your family to live a healthy, more fulfilled lifestyle.”
Read 12 Steps to Improve Family Wellness in 2020 and Beyond by Alicia@wholefamilyliving.com
🧗🏽♀️ Don’t just add one more thing to your to-do list. Make your family meeting meaningful.
“Despite good intentions, it’s the daily routines and inevitable detours to our routine that can undermine our best efforts. Attention is devoted to “putting out fires” rather than bonding and deepening the connections we desire most.”
Read 4 Steps to a Successful Family Meeting by Rebecca Louick
🎧 8 Podcast Episodes
KEY:
📰 Newsletter Topic
👸🏻 Society & Culture
💡 Ideas: Big and Small
🤰🏻 Motherhood
😎 Relax & Escape
🧗 Growth
👨👩👧👧 For the Family
⏭ Series
💣 explicit language
🌭 frank content
⚠️ sensitive topic
📰 “If your days are feeling chaotic, family meetings are definitely a good place to start!”
“This episode talks yearly, monthly, and weekly meetings, why they work, and how you can start doing them with your own family. “
Listen to The Unfiltered Motherhood Podcast | Combat the Chaos with Family Meetings (45 min)
👸🏻 “A resort should be relaxing”
“But the HBO series The White Lotus, which takes place at a resort of the same name, is instead uncomfortable, even painful. The show is about the way self-involved rich guests interact with a staff that has no choice but to tolerate them.”
Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour | The White Lotus (22 min)
💡 You 2.0
⚠️ “In a fit of anger or in the grip of fear, many of us make decisions that we never would have anticipated. As part of our You 2.0 summer series, we look at situations that make us strangers to ourselves — and why it’s so difficult to remember what these “hot states” feel like once the moment is over.
Listen to Hidden Brain | In the Heat of the Moment (52 min)
🤰🏻 How to run your family like a business
“Having elementary-aged kids at home can mean a maze of tough decisions about how to run your family and what’s right for your small children. Economist Emily Oster offers ways to streamline decision-making with strategies — and data — that work in the business world.”
Listen to Life Kit | A Business-Minded Way To Make Tough Family Decisions (18 min)
😎 Who runs the world?
“We human beings think we run the world, that we’ve got things under control. Then an animal shows up, and things don’t go as planned. This week, seals, wolves, and a moose drop in and show us who isn’t boss.”
Listen to This American Life | When the Beasts Come Marching In (61 min)
🧗 ” Here’s a talk about tears “
“Crying isn’t something to be afraid or ashamed of. Exploring the science behind the mood-boosting power of crying, childbirth and lactation educator Kathy Mendias shows how tears can enhance your physical and mental well-being and deepen your relationship to yourself and others.”
Listen to TED Health | The mood-boosting power of crying | Kathy Mendias (14 min)
👨👩👧👦 “From favorite numbers to numbers that we’re suspicious of”
“In this short, writer Alex Bellos tells Robert how, from the very first time humans ever used numbers, we couldn’t help but give them human-like qualities. Our feelings for these digits may all come down to some serious, subconscious inner-math….a deeply human arithmetic buried in our heart.”
Listen to Radiolab for Kids | For the Love of Numbers (20 min)
⏭ “All physicians are taught, “First do no harm.”
“But what happens when a doctor does harm his patients? Dr. Robert Henderson was a veteran spinal surgeon in Dallas when he got an unusual phone call from a local hospital: a new surgeon had operated so poorly that a patient who’d walked in on her own two feet now couldn’t even wiggle her toes. The surgery was so bad, in fact, he asked himself whether this person possibly be an impostor impersonating a physician?”
Listen to Dr. Death | Three Days in Dallas | 1 (40 min)
🎬 Insightful Video
Teens have a unique view on parenting… Maybe we should take our own advice and listen.
“A teen’s opinion on parenting from stereotypes and experience. This talk teaches parents about technology, teen emotions, and types of parents, all from a teen’s perspective. Lucy Androski is 13 years old and just completed her 7th-grade year at Okoboji Middle School.”
Watch How to parent a teen from a teen’s perspective | Lucy Androski | TEDxYouth@Okoboji (5:14) from our series of TED talks by kids for kids.
That’s The List for this week!
Do you have go-to tips to for the family meeting … or a take away from The List this week? Drop us a note in the comments.
As always, we hope our newsletter inspires you to get your ship together and get through your week with grace.
Have a good one and please reach out if we can be helpful to you in any way!
Love & Grace,
Rachel & Amanda
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🎧 Podcast Playlist 8/18/21