Hello and welcome to our blog! Over the next six weeks, we have the opportunity to think together about our families, our children, and our marriages—the most important and lasting parts of success! We hope, in a cyberspace sort of way, that we get to know each other and trust each other.
To begin, let’s realize and acknowledge that our families exist and our kids are growing up in the midst of some strong and often negative cultures—the Media culture, the Peer culture, the Techno/computer/gadget culture, the Celebrity culture…. If we want our kids to survive and thrive amongst all the noise, we have to create a family culture that is stronger than all of the competing cultures—a family culture with our values and our standards that can supersede all the others!
A family culture involves turning our homes into solid, predictable, lasting institutions that give confidence and identity to its members. Like any institution that is intended to last and to give esteem, a family must have a basic infrastructure of laws, traditions and responsibility-sharing. Putting this infrastructure carefully and solidly in place within a home takes time and effort (like constructing roads and bridges in a city), but once it is built, it saves time and benefits its members every day. We will explore exactly how to create this infrastructure of laws, traditions and responsibility over the next couple of weeks on this blog!
One key reason for creating a family culture and infrastructure is to set up an environment where specific values can be effectively taught to your children. The most purposeful and proactive way to teach character to children is to focus on one clear and specific value each month . When an isolated, individual value is concentrated on, opportunities to talk about it will crop up everywhere, from TV shows or movies to what happens at school or work. Click http://valuesparenting.com/about/ to learn more about teaching one value each month and click on http://valuesparenting.com/monthly_value.php to go to this month’s value. Focused, purposeful teaching of one value per month is part of creating a strong family culture that can overcome the world!
As parents work through the sequence of instituting infrastructure and values within their families, they will feel the need to better balance their own personal lives to have the time and energy necessary to devote to their children and homes. Developing that personal life balance will play heavily into this blog series.
What comes to mind when you think of balance? A tightrope walker? A juggler? To most people today, the personal application is balancing work and family and personal needs.
Lifebalance was an easier skill for our parents and grandparents because their lives were simpler; they had fewer balls to juggle. For better or for worse, they (and their children) had fewer options, less pressure, and perhaps lower expectations.
So balance is harder today, but it is possible. Please ignore time-management experts and positive-thinking gurus who tell us we can do it all, have it all, and be it all, because when we take that route, we become tired and stressed, and we sense that what is getting shortchanged is the most important things of all—our families, our relationships and our inner peace.
Prioritizing your family, your marriage and your kids more is what will help most with your lifebalance.
Over the next 11 blogs, we will walk you through the things we believe are the key elements of a Strong Family Culture. As you set your goal on making your family powerful enough to withstand and supersede all the other cultures that surround it, you will be doing the greatest thing you can ever do for the success of your children, and the ultimate and most lasting success and balance in your own life.
From their #1 bestselling books and worldwide speaking tours to their national TV talk show appearances and their chairmanship of the White House Conference on Children and Parents, Richard and Linda Eyre have focused on families as the key unit of society. They discuss marriage as the key commitment of life, children as the key element of happiness, parenting as the key skill of personal growth, family-prioritizing as the key to life-balance, and family relationships as the key component of success. The Eyres are thrilled to share some of their "keys" in this blog series which will run twice a week for six weeks. Visit the Eyres at www.TheEyres.com and at www.valuesparenting.com."
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