These five family goals are probably more important to me than my personal goals. Last term was so incredibly busy we struggled to eat together at the table, or spend any time together just having fun. I can see as the teens get ever older and become more and more separate from the family (for example, Thomas has a girlfriend), I can see that in order for time together to happen I have to plan it. So, these are our five family goals:
- We are going to begin a family time between 5-7 each night. This is usually the time dinner and chores happen. There will be no screens during this time, at all. No TV, no phones, no Ipads, no Kindles, no nothing 😉 We want to put together a family playlist, so we can listen to music which is to everyone’s taste and bop away as we chore away…together. The pay off for the children is that Gary and I will be helping with chores (usually the children’s domain in the evening). We will make it a priority to have a sit down meal together at the table, unless we are out (on a Wednesday we are out at Manna, the Christian performing arts group we are all members of). We always have so much fun at the table, eating together, really, everyone is rooting for this goal!
- Gary and I will prioritise a date night once a week. It is obviously easier now we have teens, and the older girls often gift us with an impromptu date night, for which we are very grateful.
- We would like to aim to have a family video night with home-made pizzas once a week, perhaps on a Monday. Finding videos which suit us all is always difficult, but as the teens (in particular the male teen) get older they are becoming far more easy going with what they are willing to sit through 🙂 At the moment we are watching the Heartland series on Netflix, and this seems to be a fairly good fit for us all, and only lasts an hour or so.
- Every other Friday night the older girls and Gary help out at our local club for adults with learning difficulties. They love it so much! Thomas usually sees his girlfriend. I asked the family what they thought of having a family games night on the alternate Friday they are not at the club. Now we are not a games playing family (just at Christmas) but we have a surprisingly good time when we make the effort. Thomas would disagree with me there. He is not a fan of playing games. However he has agreed because I bribed him with the promise to disappear to my bedroom on the Fridays that Gary and the girls are out to give him and Annie (his lovely girlfriend) some time on their own to watch a video. Yes, bribery and corruption are still alive and at work in the angelicscalliwags household. Sometimes you have to barter for the good of the family!
- For our last goal, we all agreed we wanted to have people over like we used to. This past year, as I have tried to get my head around IGCSEs and BTECs, I have been disinclined to have people over for a meal. Honestly, I just wanted to rest in my free time! But it is good for us to work as a family for the benefit of others. So, to this end, we are going to try for a least once a month (we used to do it once a week or more but I’m not sure I could cope with that).