How to Have a Weekly Family Meeting

 On our anniversary trip last August Josh announced the best gift he could’ve given me. He'd signed us up for a program called Homeroom through an organization called Family Teams! We’d attended a conference they put on the previous October in Cincinnati and to be honest, he wasn’t totally bought in to the material they presented which was disappointing as I’d been gobbling up their podcasts and Instagram posts for months. But I’d resigned myself to being glad that through the conference we’d had great conversations about the type of family we wanted to have and that at least it had given us the opportunity to have those conversations. Then I kind of moved on, listened to podcasts I thought were interesting but tried to not pressure Josh to follow something he didn’t fully want to pursue. I was pretty shocked when he told me he’d signed us up.

Since August we’ve been more intentional than ever before with our marriage. We try to have a meeting every Sunday evening to catch up on the past week and plan for the week ahead. I will admit that with a new baby it can be really hard to make time to sit down and plan but honestly the weeks that we don’t make it happen are usually really hard. Having a time when Josh and I can intentionally communicate about our expectations for the week makes things go much more smoothly. I wanted to share with you all what a Lowe Family Meeting looks like and encourage you to give it a try no matter what stage your family is in!

1. Family Plan Calendar - The first thing we do each week is fill in our Family Plan calendar for the week. Josh bought me this calendar for Christmas and it is an awesome tool since it covers so many things for our household. We talk through our expectations for each day of the week and fill in the calendar as we go. This has been so helpful as we navigate parenthood for the first time, it helps me to manage my expectations for when Josh will be home and available to give me a break in the evenings. I also love talking about what we’re thankful for and discussing what we want to be praying about as a family.
2. Budget Chat - One of the negative things that I identified in our 2020 review was that due to the busyness of my work schedule I really didn’t pay attention at all to our budget or financial situation. Josh definitely picked up the slack in that area but we agreed that it probably wasn’t good for us to be one sided in that area. Having this time set aside each week allows us to talk through how we’re doing following our budget and discuss what to do with any unexpected income (hello stimulus checks). 
3. Miscellaneous Topics - After our budget chat we have a chance to discuss anything else that may need to be addressed. Sometimes we dream about the future during this time and other times we do our taxes, it truly is a random part of the meeting. Sometimes we bust out in song (well, Josh does, my singing is a little more planned).
4. Bible Reading/Homeroom - Last but not least Josh will read aloud a part of Scripture we’ve been reading separately in our quiet times and we’ll discuss it with one another. Recently we’ve just been reading one Psalm a week, nothing too complicated. We just read the same Psalm each day throughout the week and then talk about it together. We learned pretty early on that Josh and I have different approaches to our time in God’s word so it’s best if we do something simple that we can share together. During this time we also go through our Homeroom study which is what led us to do a family meeting each week. Homeroom has made a huge impact on our marriage and really helps us implement some practical and simple tools to manage our home more effectively. They also have a bunch of parenting studies that we’re excited to do as Brooklyn gets older. 

Practically we have an hour and a half set aside on our calendars and we try to spend that time together each week. But obviously life happens and sometimes our family meeting is short and we don’t have time to go through all of these items and sometimes we spend a few hours together. There are also times when we can’t make it happen at all and we have to wait till the next week. I think the trick though is to start small and make an attempt. You can improve from there but starting small is better than not starting at all. 

Let me know in the comments, do you have a family meeting? If not, what’s stopping you? Feel free to leave any questions below and I’ll do my best to answer!

Unfortunately Homeroom materials are no longer available to share but I hear they have something new coming soon so check out their website. You can also access their free content on Instagram @familyteams - this is not sponsored, we truly have just been so encouraged by their resources!