About Bernadette - Articles
Recipe for New and Improved Family Rules
published at South Jersey Mom's Magazine, April 2007
1. Commit to keeping a healthy emotional climate that is positive. A happy home inspires happy listeners, no matter what time of day or night.
2. Have a family meal time without answering the phone or watching television.
3. Live from your heart and not just your head. Children may not always remember what you say, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
4. Keep your promises and remember to call when you will be late.
5. Stop rushing from activity to activity. Keep a sane pace.
6. Don’t always intervene when your children are bored; they will surprise you with a greater sense of creativity. Kids will come to see it’s not your responsibility to entertain them!
7. Although it’s nice when we all can agree, adopt the philosophy, "Agree to Disagree".
8. Stop exchanging horror stories about family members and others. Inspire honesty without encouraging a tattletale. There are two kinds of tattle taling: getting someone into trouble and saving someone from trouble. Which would you encourage?
9. Create daily delicious habits for all family members. Include a form of fun exercise. It clears the mind and de-stresses the body. Fill your home with evidence of love!
10. Don’t let money get you down. Enjoy the money you do have. See your family as an investment, not an expense.
11. Live each day as if it were your last. Begin each day with a positive intention, live the day without sweating the small stuff, and end each day expressing your love for your family members.
12. Look at difficult personalities in the family as challenges that can actually teach you something. It only takes one person to change a relationship. Work on absolute acceptance of those you love most, knowing you cannot change other people.
13. Remember, actions speak louder than words. Give up "Do as I say, not as I do." It just doesn’t work to your advantage.
14. Commit to a family meeting once a week. A family that communicates together stays together.
15. Parenting is the most important job in the world for the most important people in your life. Have fun and count your blessings.
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