I was just sitting down to write a post about making your family your first priority when ironically – or perhaps serendipitously – my oldest son woke soon after going to bed, crying in pain with an earache. So the laptop quickly closed, and I spent the next few hours curled up with a warm and snuggly six year-old. Particularly set in the context, it struck me how easily sobs abated simply by putting my attention, and my presence in the right place.
Making family priority #1 seems more clear-cut in these moments of crisis than in the everyday. Is it more important that I comfort a sick child or write? The answer there is obvious. But in our day-in, day-out life, it sometimes becomes more difficult to ensure that our priorities are reflected in our actions. We become caught up in the “Tyrrany of the Urgent” or commonly suffer from “Intention Deficit Disorder”.
Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and Sherri Kruger of Zen Family Habits are all too aware that too often “family is priority#1” turns into something we all say, but struggle to truly live by. So they’ve created a multimedia boot-camp for families who need a place to start, who need a little encouragement and inspiration to get back on track to being a more connected, more organized, less stressed, happier and more cohesive unit for the everyday.
This boot-camp is for families of all shapes and sizes who feel they need to push the pause button, regroup, reconnect and create the family and lifestyle they want and deserve.
With families of their own (Leo with six kids and Sherri with two) as well as plenty of business and personal responsibilities, Sherri and Leo understand that you need real and practical tools that you can fit into your lifestyle quickly and with relative ease. This course delivers practical information, with strategies and techniques each week that you can implement and apply to start improving your life right away.
Click here to learn more about the Ultimate Family Boot-Camp!
(Registration is now open, but ends April 13th, 2011 at midnight so that the training can kick off the very next day.)
So how about you? What do you do to ensure that your family is your first priority?
Is it in the memorable events or the everyday? Is it about formal family dinners or living room wrestling matches? Do you build it into your routines and your long-term goals? Please share what you’ve learned about going past lip-service and into reality and making family your top priority. Because when it comes to fostering whole child development, there are few things that matter more than a strong and healthy family life.
Top photo by Vivian Chen.
Perfect Dad says
There is a whole, relatively complex philosophy, around what it means to make your family the top priority. Some parents work hard outside the home to provide wealth and thus give 100% of their lives for the good of the family. Others spoil their children, lavishing them with luxuries as much as possible so that their #1 priority knows they are. Others protect kids from any possible stress or bad feelings, thereby showing that they are #1. Others do the opposite, pushing them relentlessly to become hardened top performers, giving them the skills to kill and eat the competition. All those are vastly different directions, with different outcomes, yet the same motivation. I wrote a post about that called Coming up with a Parenting Style: Visions of Grown-Ups. I think you go at it with the end in mind.
My father-in-law is a philosopher, and he is convinced that in order to raise mentally healthy kids you cannot place them number one in importance. I think there is something to that on a logical level, but I’m with you, I’m selfish and I do think that family should be number one.
notjustcute says
There really is no easy answer, is there? I think there’s a difference between making family a #1 priority and letting your children think the world does and should revolve around them. Learning to adapt is a critical skill.
And yet there are days when I wish we could throw in the towel and just spend the rest of our lives in fun family activities…but that’s not realistic either (at least not until we become independently wealthy, and even then…).
You raise some great points. I particularly like the sentiment that it’s about starting with the end in mind and intentionally teaching and emphasizing the critical things in your family life. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Ivonne Loving says
Hi! Just dropping by to tell you I included this post in my weekly round-up. Thank you for always having great quality posts to choose from.
Emily says
I think Perfect Dad and his f-i-l raise a good point – making your children the center of your life is not healthy, but having your family be more important than somebody’s facebook status is. There are so many demands on a parent’s time – school issues, work, what’s for dinner, who’s on facebook, carpool, soccer, homework, reading that book I just got at the library, reading with the preschooler, and on and on – that we have to really decide what the life we’re living is teaching our kids. After all, they’ll look to us for their lessons on how to be parents themselves someday, and I’d rather have what my family has said (I’d enjoy being a mom like mine, my folks are so well-prepared for retirement) than what my husband says (I don’t want to turn out like my folks, don’t let me discipline like my dad did). 🙁 Sad but true. We do have to look at the end result to see where we want them to go. Great post, and a great blog! 🙂