Strengthening Family: How to Set Up a Family Meeting

family fun • strengthening family relationships

by Jill Greenlaw on July 14th, 2018 | 2 Comments »

Scheduling a family meeting to discuss family goals, plan family activities, and review the progress of your family can be a great way to strengthen your family. My family holds a monthly family meeting. We started holding meetings when our kids were very little, and it has been a great tool to keep our family close.

I have three boys and all of them have been involved in scouting since they were eight. They each have a goal to earn their Eagle Rank by the time they are 16. One of the required merit badges for their Eagle is the Family Life merit badge. Scheduling family meetings is a big part of the Family Life merit badge. Each of our boys has had to lead a family meeting in order to pass off some of their requirements. I am glad the Boy Scouts of America sees this as an important way to connect with your family. Our family meetings are held at the first of each month and usually last for about 30 minutes.

How to Structure a Family Meeting

Here are some ideas of how we structure our family meetings.

Schedule a time and place to meet. Make sure you do this at least once a month. We like to do it on the same day every month so everyone knows when it is being held. Our family meetings take place on the first Sunday of every month.
Have an agenda for your meeting, but make sure not to have too much planned. If the meeting is too long, you might lose some of your family members.
Here is an example of how you can set up your meeting. It is a free printable in our Unlocking Your Family Superhero eBook.

Download Printable Here

Review quickly what is working in your family and what needs improvement. You can resolve problems in your family during these meetings too.
Go over the family calendar and commit to supporting other family members in their activities and goals. If it is on the family calendar and we commit to attend as a family, we do it. This has really helped us stay connected as we have moved into the teenage years.
Set goals as a family. When my boys were working on their Family Life merit badge, we let them run this part of the meeting. They were able to schedule family projects and make sure that they were carried out. I loved that they learned how to run a family discussion and have helped us create some fun projects over the year. This summer we built garden grow boxes. The whole family got involved, and it was a lot of fun.
Schedule topics for each meeting. If we have time in our monthly meetings and we see a teaching opportunity, we take it. Here are some ideas of what we have discussed in the past: Setting up a family emergency plan, discussing personal and family finances, avoiding peer pressure, preventing substance abuse, and setting up a family cleaning schedule.

In addition to our monthly family meetings, my husband also makes time to interview each of our four children monthly. As the patriarch of our home, it is important for him to feel connected and close to his children. He schedules a one-on-one time with each of them, so they can share their goals and dreams in a more intimate setting.

Meeting as a family is a great way to strengthen your relationships. Not only does it help you connect with each other, but it reminds you that you are a part of a bigger team.

Free Printable

Here is an example of how to fill in the "Family Meeting" printable.

Create your own family meeting with this fun printable.

Download the "Family Meeting" printable "here".

Do you hold family meetings? How do stay connected with your family?

Picture courtesy of Flickr

Jill Greenlaw has a banking background. She gave that up 17 years ago when she got married and started having kids. She loved being a stay-at-home mom while raising her four beautiful children. A few years ago, Jill went back to work in sales. She now works for the Mom It Forward team as Community Manager. She loves her job. Her interests include camping, motorcycling, boating, photography, reading, cooking, and traveling. Put her in flip flops anywhere warm and she is happy.