I received a wonderful letter from a friend this week, and as I read the letter, I was inspired by the positive culture she and her husband have created in their family. As I read the letter and considered a few other matters in life, I found myself thinking of family culture. As I've noted before, this is a changing time for my family as my sons move into their own lives in varying ways. I want to support their new chapters in every way that I can. I also want to support the different ways that they're choosing to live their lives--these different choices include locations, jobs, pastimes and more. There are many ways to live good lives and I want to embrace, enjoy, and celebrate the many varying choices my sons make with regard to their lives.
As I think about this, I am thinking about what I know about positive family culture:
- Be respectful of all family members and the many ways they choose to live their good lives
- Do not accept disrespectful, hurtful, unkind behaviors - speak up and work to change those behaviors when they occur
- Help each other in ways that you can
- Be flexible with regard to your expectations, time, and energy--life is always changing and flexibility helps us to live good, positive lives
- Be honest with communication and actions
- Celebrate the good times
- Make time to be together in positive ways
- Respect and understand each other's limitations
- No one can be all things or do all things
- Your needs will be met in many varying ways--some needs will be met within the family and some needs will be met outside of the family
- Make time to respectfully discuss the problems that occur and work together on the solutions
