Things I’ve Learned To Strengthen My Family Relationships
When you focus on the family before almost everything else in life, you will be able to keep it together for everyone involved.
This reminds me of my first on air radio job. My responsibility was to play syndicated programs and announce commercials. I was about 25 years old at the time, and radio stations did not have digital equipment. DJs played audio from cart machines and reel to reel tape.
One of the shows that I was responsible for airing was called FOCUS ON THE FAMILY with James Dobson. He emphasized the value of family life with ways to nurture and nourish it. During this period of my life, as a single young lady, I wasn't particularly thinking about raising a family, but for some reason Dobson’s content resonated with me and I retained his words.
All these years later, his program is the one I always remember and think about.
POV.... Someone is always paying attention to your words like I did with James Dobson’s. “Use your words wisely.”
Fast forward to 2024, I’m married with four children of my own, and in one month married 31 years. What have I learned from being a wife, a mother, a sister, and a daughter? I mostly learned that connections in the family are the cornerstone to good communication within your various relationships.
Group settings are easy for general connections. However, a technique to build individual relationships like father and son or mother and daughter etc. is to develop it one on one. Each member gets singular time with you.
The individual attention provides the space to create a strong bond, to listen more intently and to learn about your family member in a way not possible when other people are around. My most fruitful and meaningful conversations, which I have had the pleasure of engaging in, are with my four children and my husband on a one-on-one basis. I’m very grateful for those talks, for they also helped me grow as a person.
Next, I discovered that my elders hold the keys to family unity. Did you ever notice when the generation ahead of you shares their struggles and joys that you apply the wisdom to help you in your nuclear family? It’s like free advice. My grandparents passed away when I was three years old, but I learned from my aunts, uncles, and distant relatives, but truly it was predominately my parents who taught me the ropes of life. Tasso and Katina were and are the living example of how to live a life well served in a family setting.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “Well done is better than well said.”
“A right heart exceeds all.”
“What you seem to be, be really.”
There are numerous virtues my folks imparted on me; those bits of wisdom are in this week’s podcast episode of Kefi L!fe. When you tune in to episode 169 about Family, you will also hear the square of life, celebrating your kin along with more of my personal experience.
Today, tomorrow and forever hold yourself and your family at a high standard with the knowledge that from birth to death, family is everything!
Ola Kala, all is well
- Kiki