I didn't, but I've always liked the idea and I hope that we do this with our kids!
Did you have family meetings growing up?
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No, we never did!
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No. We didn't really need to... I guess I never saw the point.
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No, but I tried to organize them for things like fire safety.
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Nope. Although when I was 7 I was supposed to have a pool party for my birthday. It rained all morning and my mom said we had to cancel the party. I had a fit and hid under the dining room table and cried. Mom had to get under there with me to talk about it. I convinced her not to cancel the party and said I wouldn't be mad if we had to stay inside. Well right before the party the sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon. So from that point on whenever I had an important decision to make mom and I would crawl under the dining room table and talk it out : )
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@MamaMoose: that's really sweet
No fam meetings growing up but I'd like to do that with our kiddo(s)!
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We only had official meetings when something horrible had happened. Dinnertime was when we'd all gather as a family and talk.
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We had some, but we'd always heckle my parents for holding them
Maybe because in our case there was a perception that nothing would change with our input. (Not in a bad way, just something had already been decided.)
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We've had a few family meetings for important things, mostly related to school work, moving, and health-related issues. It was nice because everyone got to talk and for a moment we (the kids) felt like we were treated like adults.
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We did but they were never really positive! It was always when my parents had made a decision that my sister and I opposed. We always went into them nervous and angry =/
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We used to have family bible studies together and prayer time! Planning on doing the same with our kids.
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@Running Elley: How did you come out of the meetings... still angry?
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@mrbee: Unfortunately we usually did. I think it was because we went in defensive/nervous already and my dad's personality is very gruff. I definitely recognize that they could have had a much better outcome if they were dealt with differently.
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We only did for bad things, like parents divorcing or my dad having cancer. If one of my parents wants to talk to all of us together, we know it's something bad.
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What do you do at family meetings?
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@mediagirl: Ditto! What's the purpose of a family meeting?
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We never did but we were lucky enough to always have dinner together and we'd talk about our day or anything that had come up during dinner. I think I prefer that, imagining the anxiety of a 'family meeting' unless you just had a set one every Sunday or something where you talk about good stuff too.
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No family meetings outside of dinner together and we discussed things there.
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Nope. My father declared that he ran a dictatorship, not a democracy. But we always had dinner together every night, so things did get talked over.
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We didn't have official family meetings. My parents talked to us plenty about serious things as a family.... and I'm sure I'll do the same with my kids.
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No, family meetings here. Unless you call my parents getting us all together to figure out who broke the vase or [insert something bad here.] lol
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We never did, but one of my good friends has started family meetings with her two small children on Sunday evenings. They get a treat of ice cream and then sit down to discuss everything, from what activities the next week will bring to brainstorming on how the family can get to bed earlier and be more well rested. I'm so impressed how much of a voice she gives her children, and in return how responsible and resourceful they are, even at 3 and 5.
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I'm not particularly fond of the idea of family meetings because I think they tend to be held only for negative reasons and kids start to dread them because they know something bad/sad/negative will happen has a result. I tend to favor things like family dinners because it's something that happens every day where it's much more likely to discuss something positive or neutral with the occasional serious topic thrown in versus being overwhelmingly negative.
That being said, I do think it's possible to have family meetings be positive if they're done on a regular basis like once a week or once a month and the emphasis is on the positive. For example: roses and thorns. Everyone shares a rose (something good) and a thorn (something bad) that way the family can help them work out a solution to the thorn.
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The only one I can think of happened in the 8th grade to tell us that we were going to move. Not a fan of that one.
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We didn't - I can't stop thinking Brady Bunch when I think family meeting!
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We didn't but I think we will! Weekly!
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No, we never did. We usually ate dinner together every night though, so we were pretty close. Also, there were only two of us (my sister and myself), so it wasn't like there was too much going on ever...
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Yes!!!! We had them for everything. There was one time we had to have to discuss if I could join the swim team. The practices went past my bedtime. : )
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alllllll the time. but they were usually involved a lecture of some kind so we didn't look forward to them.
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We did from time to time if our parents needed to tell us something important, though I can't think of a good example. They were usually short and sweet, and they would ask our feelings, but it wasn't like an opportunity to vote or anything. Our family was not a democracy.
As others said though, we had dinner as a family at the dinner table almost every night for my whole childhood, and we would discuss what was going on in our lives there.
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