Peggy Curry is back & today she’s talking all about building a strong foundation within your family.
You’ve heard Peggy & her daughter Megan’s strange health hacks & their approach to talking to your kids about sex- I keep inviting them on The Skinny Confidential because I feel their posts bring so much value to the audience.
Anyway, in this post Peggy shares her top 10 things to do for a strong relationship within your family.
Let’s get to it.
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How To Build a Strong Family Foundation
Growing healthy kids & creating a strong family foundation is what most parents hope for, but it’s not always easy to accomplish. Kids come into our world & it takes boatloads of time, commitment, patience & energy.
For me & my husband Tim, raising healthy, happy, loving & kind children was always a priority. Forty+ years ago, everyone was curious how we were going to raise our kids with two different religious backgrounds. Opinions were that it just wouldn’t work.
Tim & I decided before getting married how our core values would be the forefront for raising our children. The main value was communication. We have been together for nearly 50 years & raised 4 incredible daughters so I’m here today to share our top 10 tips for building a strong & healthy family
10 Tips For Building a Strong Family:
♡ Communication is LOVE.
It is our #1 core value practiced daily in our family. I talked about this in my last post about how to talk to your kids about sex. Communication is key.
♡ Create a home base.
Our family kitchen table was where all meals were eaten nightly. The table brought opportunity to check in daily with the kids. They felt seen & heard. Children become great communicators with daily practice.
♡ Sunday family meeting.
Our weekly meeting taught our core family values. Being loving, compassionate, communicative, respectful, honest, generous, trustworthy, open-minded, forgiving, caring, independent thinkers & generous humans… modeling was critical for how we wanted our kids to grow up & behave.
♡ Create a safe space.
A place where kids felt safe, could learn to trust & were able to open up without judgment. It was NOT always easy. Kids can be so mean. Practice built trust.
♡ Be available.
So your child can come to you & share. Ask if they want advice or just want you to LISTEN & allow them to dump. They will learn to ask you for advice & feel respected.
♡ Create a bedtime ritual.
Tuck your kids in bed. Massage their hands or feet with lavender oil, hug & kiss them, touch is so important. This time of day is when kids are most vulnerable, relaxed & are open to talk…IF they feel like it. They’ll feel your love.
♡ Practice vulnerability.
Your family is where you learn how to work through challenges & talk through hardships. It’s where you learn important life skills to take out into the world. Your family can & hopefully will be your BFF’s for life.
♡ It is not your job to be your kid’s friend.
It’s confusing to a child. Who’s in charge? It actually can create feelings of being unsafe. It is your job to be their parent.
♡ Establish & define good boundaries.
Kids push boundaries to the limit, but they need to see that you mean what you say. Consistency rules. Boundaries help kids feel safe & create stability & kids actually appreciate them. Make partner agreements & stick to them.
Partner agreements are:
+ Never allow your kids to put a wedge between you & your partner. If that happens, & they will try, there are consequences for trying. What it shows is that you are both in agreement, & them trying to do that is them being deceitful. Explain that to your kids. So if mom says no to one thing, then they go to dad & dad says yes, that has serious consequences.
+ Important rule… parents must stick together! Decide before kids are too old how you will work together. There’s always a good guy & bad guy, and that is ok. BUT make sure your partner is on the same page. Have the other ask the kid first, “did you ask mom/dad?”
♡ Take a long road trip.
Camping or glamping brings a built-in closeness. It helps build strong relationships & memories that last a lifetime. Ignore complaining. They’ll thank you as adults!
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Be sure to listen to the Make Life Delicious podcast episode where Peggy & Megan discuss all these tips further.
You should also know that the Curry girls have launched a winter reset program that starts January 11. It’s 21 days & geared towards people who want to get rid of inflammation, have chronic pain or have breakouts & other skin conditions.
You’ll get an eBook with recipes, meal plans, plus tons of videos to help you cook & grocery shop. As I said it starts January 11, PLUS Peggy & Megan are giving all TSC readers 15% off with the code TSC15. So mark your calendars!
x, lauryn
+ check out Peggy’s tips on how to talk to your kids about sex.
++ scope my time management tips for new parents.
SHOP THE POST:
Lauryn – I LOVE this post. As someone who suffers from a lot lot of fears around pregnancy and having children, this post really hit home for me. I know we’re not all totally prepared before getting pregnant and giving birth, but I often feel like many women just KNOW they will be a good mom, they are ready and they are fully prepared. I am the total opposite. I’m working through this a lot in therapy (lifesaver!) but reading things like this reassures me that with guidance, books, etc I might just be ok. Thank you for bringing Peggy to my attention and for this post! It’s so insightful and helpful and brings about things that I never thought, but also wasn’t sure how to do, with basically steps on how to make them happen. I appreciate this so much. xo
Adrianna, thank you for the kind feedback! <3
This was such a great blog post, thank you for sharing!
Danielle xx
https://www.thereluctantblogger.co.uk/
Thank you for reading!
LOVE this article and how you’re always promoting the value of family. xx
https://thehive.health
Thank you, Liz! xx
Thank you, now this is became much so clear for me!
Hi Lauryn! This was truly a pleasure to read.I am definitely going to try these rituals just as part of ‘good family communication’ as I think they’re great tips for relationships generally. Thanks for another insightful post!
Thanks you very much