Family Meeting

My communication with my son is not good, normally it is just one way, I am trying to ask him to follow all what I thought is good for him. However I don’t care too much about what he wants, he is just a kid.

Gradually, I noticed this was not a good way of communication, and I could see more and more the unhappy expression on my son’s face.

I need make an improvement on.  After thought about the possible ways to make improvement, I decided to hold a family meeting first to understand everyone’s thoughts and discuss openly for better understanding.

Yesterday afternoon (2/12), we four (my husband, my mom, my son and myself) sat together for the very 1^st family meeting! At the very beginning, everybody was just looking at me, especially my son.  I then shared with them the purpose of this meeting is to improve the communication in this family, then this will be held monthly from this month on. We could have it more frequently if needed. I could see the expression changes on their faces, smile and happy ones.

I first praised my son for what he did for last semester. Then I expressed my expectation to him for the new semester, not just about study, but also making more new good friends, physical status, like having more healthy food etc., and I asked for his thoughts / ideas.

He was very happy about what I said and agreed on most of them. Then I asked for his expectation on us. He was a little bit surprised, and then shared with us his comments.  For me, he wanted me to go back home earlier after work, as I often OT too much. I agreed and told him I will try all my best to go back home earlier, or I will bring some work home to finish later when he went to bed.  I will be with him for at least one hour everyday to do something together, like read the books or go out for a walk etc.

I am very happy to know that he wanted to stay with me more, normally he prefers to say with my husband much more.  With lot of talks, laughter, the 1^st family meeting lasted for more than 1 hour. It’s a very fruitful meeting, and I am so happy I am doing something different now to make my life better, happier.  Thanks.

GOAWAYCOMEBACK COMMENTS:

We have Monday Morning Meeting, monthly meeting, annual convention, share holder’s meeting, and every kind of other meetings.

That’s how we communicate and get things done in our works. We cannot imagine a company without a meeting room, an organization without meeting. Meeting is already part of our career life.

How about our personal life, can we have Monday Evening Meeting, monthly meeting and annual meeting with our family members?  Yes, we can, and yes we should! If we do, most probably we will have higher quality life and better work-life balance.

The trend for work-life balance is: make workplace like a family and family like a workplace. They are different but they can learn from each other.