What's Your Family Hallmark?

One of the things that I’ve done a lot lately is to really try to ensure that my home is a place of comfort and love for my children and my husband. I’ve been so busy lately that it’s hard to always give everything the attention it deserves.  I know this is true for a lot of moms, especially working and/or single moms and we constantly beat ourselves up about this.

There is a great quote that I saw once that read: “Life is not about the breaths you take but about the moments that take your breath away.” This quote is a constant reminder to me that even if I don’t spend as much time with my kids as I think I should, I need to make the time I spend with them count.

One way that I try to ensure that we stay close as a family is to eat dinner together at least 4 nights a week.  Eating dinner together has become our family hallmark. It is filled with great memories that I’m certain my kids will share them with their kids and grandkids. I try to really make dinner fun because I know it’s not just about dinner but about our family unit: building and bonding. It’s my opportunity to learn about everyone’s day, their hopes, fears and desires, about what’s happened at school and everything that’s important in their lives at the moment.  It’s where I learn about issues before they fester or dreams before they fully blossom. It’s where I teach math through baking and measuring, responsibility through table setting, table clearing and dishwashing, and team work by having them work with one another to get meals prepared.

Dinner is known as fun time in our house and I’ve tried to do it that way so that everyone looks forward to it. This week we did a taste test and sampled healthy dessert options. Then another night we had a fruit bazaar where we had all kinds of fruit and the kids were able to put whatever topping they wanted on it: caramel, chocolate and even sprinkles. Then another night we pulled comical questions I wrote from a box and answered them.

In an ideal world, it would be great if we had all the time in the world to spend with them and every home had 2 parents who didn’t have to work to support them, but the truth is that’s not reality for most families.  I’m just letting you know it’s ok to ease the pressure on yourself.  All that matters is that our kids know we love them and that we are vested in their lives.  Pick one thing that becomes your family hallmark. Use this hallmark to create harmony in your home, communicate with your kids and build your family unit.  In the end, I don’t believe they will focus on the amount of time you spent with them but rather what you did with the time you had with them.

What do you do to build togetherness in your home?