Family Meetings

Each week on Sundays I sit with my children and discuss the major issues in our family. This is a technique I learned from a child psychologist × Psychologist
Psychologist /psy·chol·o·gist/ A psychologist is a health care professional who is a specialist in the science of mind or of mental states and processes. Psychologists are there to help support many types of people and problems. Often someone will go visit a psychologist because they have felt feelings such as depression, anger, or anxiety. Other times psychologists will help those people with a new and overwhelming job or help people to overcome grief from events that may occur. Psychologists go through a long process of schooling and training so that the methods that they use to benefit patients in need. Typically a psychologist will use therapy to aid conflict through different methods and styles that best address the patient’s problem, personality, and preferences. Psychologists are a valuable resource that can be used and implemented in many ways to overcome conflict and trials in different people’s lives.
who believes in structure as a parent’s best friend. The idea is to discuss all those issues that have been building up over the week or previous weeks and causing stress in the child or parents emotional situation. This weekly opportunity to bring up problems or issues prevents shouting matches and hard feelings during the week or in the moment when strife occurs. For example when my kids are disobedient or acting out at any time I can point out the problem and assign consequences × Consequences
n. noun con·se·quences The Merriam- Webster dictionary provides the following definitions for consequences: 1.the effect, result, or outcome of something occurring earlier: The accident was the consequence of reckless driving. 2.an act or instance of following something as an effect, result, or outcome. Consequences is a prevalent issue in the life of a troubled teen. Troubled adolescents who suffer from negative consequences, do so because of their poor decision making. Whatever choice a teenage boy or girl decides to make, a consequence of that decision will soon follow. If a teen chooses to make productive choices in life, he/she will reap the benefits of positive consequences. However, if a teen makes poor choices such as, abuse drugs and alcohol, skipping class, hanging out with the wrong crowd or disobeying parents and authority, that teen will reap negative consequences. Negative consequences such as, legal troubles, being grounded from parents, or getting kicked out of school due to inactivity or rebelliousness, are all viable and likely negative consequences a teen will experience if he or she is making poor choices.
that were discussed at the family meeting. And if the topic or offense had not occurred previously and consequences not assigned then the issue would be discussed at the weekly family meeting. This prevents anger from getting the best of parents and children can learn how to handle stressful situations without resorting to anger or shouting. Kids really want to behave. The main problem arises with the lack of knowledge regarding boundaries and what it means to be member of society (or family). Having weekly family meetings that clearly state boundaries and consequences for breaking these boundaries can make the difference in helping a family survive without anger and incorporating structure and love into the equation.