Our Game Changing Weekly Meetings
Babies need routine to thrive. Us adults are no different. Routines establish trust and make us stronger. Along this line, I’ve been thinking alot about how to introduce routines that help nurture my relationships with my kids, my husband, and our family as a whole. I’ve written about the family board meeting concept where you have intentional, extended one-on-one time with your child once a quarter. But, more recently, we have implemented a weekly family meeting and a weekly date night that happen on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, respectively.
I keep our family meeting agenda on my phone and I jot down things I see everyone doing that I want to highlight at our meeting. You’d be surprised how quickly you forget all the great things your loved ones do throughout the day.
Following the advice that I’ve gleaned from my business books, we have a set agenda for our family meetings. I created a 4 C’s structure to guide us-–Compliments, Coming Up, Conversation, and Close. We rarely get to the Conversation and Closing parts of our meeting because…ahem…attention span. But, we always get to Compliments and Coming Up. Each week, each member of our family has to say something complimentary about each person in the house. The kids especially look forward to this and it’s also a nice way for Nick and I to acknowledge each other. During the Coming Up portion of our meeting, we review the week ahead from Thursday to the following Wednesday and go through what’s on the agenda for everyone. This allows for us adults to touch base on childcare and work logistics and for the kids to have a sense of what’s going on for the week.
Nick and I traveled to Vegas in November for our annual Ice Cream Association conference and made sure to have date night there, too.
On Thursdays, Nick and I go on a date in the neighborhood and one of our high school neighbors plays with the kids and puts them to bed while we’re out for two hours. Full transparency, for every great date that we have, we have a not great date where one of us comes home annoyed. BUT, the act of meeting weekly to connect with each other outside of the kids has deepened our relationship and gives us both something to look forward to each week. Our kids also seem to find it cute that their parents go on dates and they love their Thursday babysitter so much, so it's a win-win.
In short, I love a weekly meeting. They are commonplace at work and I think they fit equally well at home.
What’s the game changing weekly meeting that you have or would like to have?
Sending lots of good vibes for a great week ahead!
Petrushka