Last week I introduced you to the six sections of my blog. I’m excited for tomorrow because I will be posting the first family ritual to enhance enjoyable time together. Today, I thought I’d describe my blog’s structure so you’ll know what to expect each day of the week.
Every Try-It Tuesday, I will share a new family ritual that focuses on building a specific characteristic of strong families from the American Family Strengths Inventory (DeFrain & Stinnett, 2008). I’ll ask for feedback from you guys. Specifically, I’m hoping you will try the family ritual and then comment on your experiences, whether you would try it again, and how you saw it impacting the characteristic the ritual was intended to address.
On Wisdom Wednesdays, I will post resources related to family rituals or emerging adulthood as a way to support and encourage readers’ efforts to engage in family rituals. These resources might include links to books, movies, websites or other sources.
On A Thousand Word Thursdays, I will share a photo capturing a family ritual because a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Of course, I may also share the story behind the photo, maybe not in a thousand words, but in a few.
On Q&A Fridays, I will pose a question and try to answer it or include a question you may have asked. On Saturday, I will post my Weekend Wonders—funny memes, games, stories, or quotes that readers can share with their families. And to give myself and my readers a break, I will not post on Sundays.
On Memorable Mondays, I will summarize readers’ comments about their family ritual experiences and add my own thoughts about my experiences with the family ritual posted the week before. So please provide lots of comments!
Today is Monday, but I haven’t posted the first family ritual yet so, I thought I’d just ask you to share your favorite family memory by commenting on this post. Share a specific example of when you spent enjoyable time with your family. What did you do? Was it a one-time event or something you did on a regular basis? Who participated? What made this time spent with your family so enjoyable? So memorable?
I’ll get us started by sharing one of my favorite recent family memories: my boyfriend’s family dinner on Christmas Eve. During the holiday season in his household, it is a tradition for all of the family to gather, with this year’s addition of Adria (my boyfriend’s brother’s wife) and me! After having an enjoyable meal with the family at the dinner table, my boyfriend’s mother surprised us with a quiz entitled “How well do you know your family?” We were each handed a piece of paper and a pencil and were instructed to number down the sheet 1 through 39 and label across the sheet the names of all the family members present (including their 2 cats!). She then progressed through a series of 39 statements meant to demonstrate characteristics of each individual of the family. For example, one of the statements was “This person’s initials are true to his name.” The answer was MES (or mess) as one of the family members was a technology education teacher who often made a mess working on his projects. Another example statement was “This person is often pink and sparkly” and referred to Adria. So whether funny, informative, or otherwise, it was a way to bring all of us together and to share laughter and memories. Also, I learned a lot about my boyfriend and his family!
I’ll be back tomorrow with our first family ritual. I hope you enjoy it and are ready to get started!
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