Secrets for a Happy Family

Families in today’s world are not happy at all. Here in Kenya, and I believe world-wide, wife-battering, child-battering, sibling rivalry, incest, rape, are rampant. Is it possible to have a happy family? Why don’t we have happy families?:

1. Daddy drinks alcohol and beats mummy and the children;
2. Mummy is cheating, so Daddy and Mummy are not in talking terms;
3. Julie, our 14-year-old daughter, has just announced that she is pregnant;
4. Philip, our 12-year-old son, is on drugs;
5. Bad family practices are the causes of all the above, and they are as follows:

1. Watching of TV and DVD without control regarding what is watched. More and more families have more than one TV, including TVs in the children’s bedrooms. Children are likely to copy what they watch on TV or DVD, good or bad;
2. There’s no parent-child bonding;
3. There’s no child-child bonding;
4. There’s no control on sleep-over activities;
5. There’s no control on the friends the children keep;
6. There’s no control over what time the teenage children return home on weekends and during holidays.

What is the solution to the above? How do we ensure that our family becomes a happy one?:

1. Develop good family cultures, for instance:

1. Hug and kiss whenever you meet every morning and evening;
2. Share a meal at the table every morning and evening, sharing your experiences freely;
3. Daddy should have quality time with the boys, getting to know them better, what they’re up to, and ensuring that they have issues regarding sex and sexuality right;
4. Mummy should have quality time with the girls, getting to know them better, what they’re up to, and ensuring that they have issues regarding sex and sexuality right. Mummy should be the first to know about her daughter’s first monthly period, and she should by then have prepared her enough;
5. Daddy should hold weekly family meetings, just for bonding, sharing, and counseling;
6. Mummy and Daddy should never forget the children’s birthdays, and they should make them very special days;
7. Mummy and Daddy should love one another, and exhibit, within acceptable limits, such love physically;
8. Mummy and Daddy should make each other’s birthdays, as well as their anniversary, as special as possible;
9. Every weekend, take the family out for a picnic. Organize fun activities, as well as slotting in a lesson for all to learn, for instance, financial management tips, goal-setting tips, among others. This might be a good forum to develop the children’s decision-making skills, for instance, by giving them assignments, or seeking their opinions on specific issues;
10. Forgive and accept anyone who might have made an error, admitted, and asked for forgiveness;
11. Handle sibling rivalry through sibling involvement in the resolutions to whichever conflicts might have taken place.

The above tips will transform your family to a happy one, not only now, but in the long term.