Family Meetings

Like most mothers & wives I completely adore both my husband & my kids, however, there are moments when I think, "Seriously!?!" this can be accompanied with "I am the only one who sees, can hear, or do something about *you fill in the blank*." Enters the family meeting! I started the family meeting about 2 yrs ago after returning to work post 2nd child. I was feeling squeezy and needed help before I broke down in a puddle of tears speaking in a pitch that only animals could understand. So I wrote down everything that I did at home and everything that needed to be done in a very long list and called our first family meeting. In this meeting we divided up the duties so that I was not carrying the brunt of the load myself. This meant that I would have to be okay with things not being done the exact way I do them. A bit of a struggle for me. *As anyone who has loved or lived with a teacher knows, we are all control freaks!* But we did it and I only re-vacuum the living room 1x per week.
Recently I found a new use for the family meeting....
We were at Target letting our youngest pick out a special toy that he could earn by going potty on the potty. (A whole other issue...)Of course our oldest wanted something, too. I don't want him growing up with a sense of entitlement so I said that I would purchase the Lego set, however, he would have to earn it. How I did not know. He proceeded to harass his father and I with how he could earn it but we hadn't had time to give it a thought. So in stroke of genius I put it on his plate and told him to come up with a list of ways he could earn the Lego set and pitch it to us at our next family meeting. Ahhhh...relief!