Keeping the Family Together

(The Nationalist, 1 September 2000)

 

Here are ten ways to improve family life:

  1. Use opportunities to celebrate special events. Develop family traditions; they give a sense of stability in a fast-changing world.
  2. Eat together on a regular basis. Family meals can nourish not just bodies, but minds and hearts. They build relationships. They civilize the selfish, grabbing brute in us.
  3. Enjoy each other’s company. Do things together, especially things that are active such as a walk, rather than passive such as watching TV.
  4. Share the housework. This develops an attitude of helpfulness, pride in the home, a recognition of others’ work and a sense of responsibility.
  5. Share in groups and activities in the local community. This gives an awareness of the wider world. Think globally, act locally.
  6. Keep the generations connected. Share family photos or videos. Link grandparents and their grandchildren.
  7. Forgive and be ready to accept forgiveness. Giving and forgiving go together.
  8. Show interest in one another’s hopes, dreams or ideals. Be generous with praise, sparing with criticism. Watch the doughnut not the hole.
  9. Husbands and wives – spend time together and learn how to communicate with each other.
  10. Pray together: the family that prays together stays together.

 

(Keeping the Family Together: adapted, with thanks, from Richard McCord of the US Bishops’ Secretariat for the Family.)