There was interest in knowing more about family meetings. Tips offered by experienced Family Meeting folks:
- Start your Family Meeting with something positive: compliments. Go around the table and have each person offer a compliment to all others. Or just say what they love about the family.
- Give each person AND YOURSELF a compliment at the beginning.
- For the first 6 weeks, the only agenda item should be planning Family Fun for the week. After 6 weeks, ONLY kids put items on the agenda, not adults.
- Have an agenda item that’s about “ways we can improve as a family.” Review last week’s improvements each week.
- Try letting kids take a leadership role, like leading the meeting or being note taker.
- Let kids talk first about their agenda item.
- Family meetings get better and easier with practice, over time. Keep trying!