Positive relationships for families: tips

Positive relationships for families: why they’re important

impregnable and incontrovertible class relationships are enjoyable for their own sake – it good feel effective to be partially of a strong and love family. But positive family relationships are important for lots of other reasons besides. They :

• help children feel secure and loved, which gives them confidence to explore their world, try new things and learn
• make it easier for your family to solve problems, resolve conflict and respect differences of opinion
• give children the skills they need to build healthy relationships of their own.

This is why it ’ mho worth sustain and improving the relationships you parcel with your children and other family members. There are batch of simple things you can do to develop positive family relationships.

positive family relationships are an significant partially of hard families. hard families grow from sexual love, security, communication, connection – and a few rules and routines besides .

Quality time and family relationships

Quality family time is about making the most of the prison term you spend together as a family. here are some ways you can make quality time happen in your family :

• Use everyday time together to talk and share a laugh. For example, family meals and car travel can be great times to catch up on the day.
• Have time together when devices are turned off and out of sight. This helps to keep everyone focused on what you’re doing or talking about at the time.
• Have one-on-one chats with each family member to strengthen individual relationships. It can just be five minutes before each child goes to bed.
• Set aside time with your partner, if you have one. You could explain to your children that it’s good for your relationship with your partner to have this quality time alone together.
• Do regular, fun things together as a family. This can be as simple as a family soccer game at the local park on Saturdays, or a family board games night each week.

Positive communication and family relationships

positive communication is about listening without judgment and expressing your own thoughts and feelings openly and respectfully. It helps everybody feel understood, respected and valued, and this strengthens your relationships. Try these positive communication ideas to strengthen your class relationships :

• When your child or partner wants to talk, try to stop what you’re doing and listen with full attention. Give people time to express their points of view or feelings.
• Be open to talking about difficult things – like mistakes – and all kinds of feelings, including anger, joy, frustration, fear and anxiety. But it’s best to wait until you’ve calmed down from strong emotions like anger before you talk about them.
• Be ready for spontaneous conversations. For example, younger children often like to talk through their feelings when they’re in the bath or as they’re getting into bed.
• Plan for difficult conversations, especially with teenagers. For example, sex, drugs, alcohol, academic difficulties and money are topics that families can find difficult to talk about. It helps to think through your feelings and values before these topics come up.
• Encourage your children with praise. For example, ‘It’s a big help when you bring the bins in without being asked, Leo. Thanks!’
• Let everyone in the family know that you love and appreciate them. This can be as simple as saying ‘I love you’ to your children each night when they go to bed.

Positive non-verbal communication
not all communication happens in words, so it ’ south significant to pay attention to the feelings that your children and collaborator express nonverbally. For exemplar, your adolescent child might not want to talk to you but might still come looking for the quilt of cuddles sometimes ! It ’ mho besides crucial to be aware of the non-verbal messages you send. For exercise, hugs, kisses and eye contact send the message that you want to be close up to your child. But a crabbed tone of voice or a frown when you ’ re doing something together might send the message that you don ’ t want to be there. positive communication can be about respecting person ’ s desire not to talk. For exercise, as children move towards the adolescent years, they often want more privacy. But you can stay connected with your adolescent child, both through everyday activities and planned time together.

Teamwork and family relationships

When your family is working as a team, everyone feels supported and able to contribute. It ’ second easier to work as a team when everyone understands where they stand, so it helps to have unclutter expectations, limits and boundaries. You can encourage teamwork in some of these ways :

• Share household chores. Even very young children can enjoy the feeling of belonging that comes from making a contribution.
• Include children in decisions about things like family activities and holidays. Give everyone – including young children – a chance to have their say before you make the final decision. Family meetings can be a good way to do this.
• Let children make some of their own decisions, depending on your children’s abilities and maturity. For example, you might let your 12-year-old child decide whether to walk or cycle home from school.
• Create family rules together that state clearly how your family wants to look after and treat its members. For example, ‘In our family we speak respectfully to each other’. Rules like this help everyone get along better, and make family life more peaceful.
• Work together to solve problems. This involves listening and thinking calmly, considering options, respecting other people’s opinions, finding constructive solutions, and working towards compromises.

Appreciation for each other and family relationships

Valuing each other is at the kernel of good family relationships. here are some ways you might be able to do this :

• Take an interest in each other’s lives. For example, make time to go to each other’s sporting events, drama performances, art shows and so on.
• Include everyone in conversation when you’re talking about the day’s events. For example, ‘What was the highlight for you today, Izzy?’
• Share family stories and memories. These can help children appreciate things that aren’t obvious, or that they’ve forgotten – for example, Mum’s sporting achievements when she was younger, or the way a big sister helped care for her little brother after he was born.
• Acknowledge each other’s differences, talents and abilities, and use each other’s strengths. For example, if you praise and thank your teenage child for listening to a younger sibling reading, your child will begin to see themselves as helpful and caring.