Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids

by Kim John Payne

If your children are older, approaching or in adolescence, family meetings can do what previewing does for younger kids. Sometimes tied to Sunday supper, the meetings take place with everyone hanging out for fifteen or twenty minutes beyond the cleanup of the meal. The previous week is reviewed: What worked? What didn’t work? What were those things we meant to tell one another, before we forgot? The following week is then discussed, with everyone’s plans, and the necessary logistics, rolled out on the table. It may all be quite complicated, but as the pieces come together, what lingers, with the smell of dish soap and the last bite of dessert, is this: We’re in this together.