Top 10 Secrets To A Happy Family

Top 10 Secrets To A Happy Family

One of the best gifts you can give your children is a happy family. When your children grow up and look back on the family time that you spent together, you want them to have fond memories of the good times that they had growing up. Here are 10 secrets for a happy family...

1) Enjoy Laughter Together

Laughter is one of the things that helps draw families closer together. Sharing funny stories or watching humorous movies or television shows together is a wonderful way to create a connection with your children. You will find that plenty of laughter will make almost any situation that can occur in your family much easier to handle.

2) Concentrate on What You Have to Be Thankful For

So many times it seems that people focus more on the problems that they have in life, instead of truly enjoying the many blessings that they already have. One of the best ways to not only create more happiness in your family, but also teach your children the fine art of seeing the good side of things, is to focus more of your attention on the positive, instead of dwelling on the negative.

3) Share Your Happiness as a Couple with Your Children

One of the best gifts you can give a child is the knowledge that their parents truly love each other. Not only does this give them a strong sense of security, but it also provides them with a positive role modeling experience that they can look back on and emulate when they grow up.

4) Be Happy with Less

Many times financial worries and concerns can drain happiness from a family. Although you might try to hide your worries from your children, they can sense when there are problems. Try to keep your finances in order, but one of the best things you can do financially in your family is to learn how to appreciate the smaller pleasures in life. You don’t need reservations at an expensive restaurant and a movie afterwards when you can enjoy spaghetti night and a comedy DVD with your children at home.

5) Practice Courtesy

Sometimes it can seem like common courtesy is a lost art. Teach your children to give happiness to others by setting a positive example of courtesy and consideration for each other.

6) Make Your Home a Place of Kind Words

Many times sibling fighting often starts when one child says something mean or puts down another child. That child responds with another insult. The fight soon escalates. To break this cycle, there should be a rule that no person puts down any other member of the family and the rule needs to be enforced, both with children and parents alike.

7) Believe in Each Other

Children build a lot of the self-esteem that they will carry for the rest of their life during the time they spend with their parents. If you ask a person with many skills how they learned to do these things, many times the answer will be that when they were growing up, their parents truly believed in them. When you believe your children can do anything, it usually becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

8) Offer Praise Instead of Criticism

Although it might be easy to find fault in small things that your children and spouse do throughout the day, remember that you can create a lot of happiness with one small word of praise, but also have the power to destroy happiness by offering criticism instead. Try to find something nice to say about everybody every single day.

9) Worry Less

Too many times families miss out on a lot of joy and happiness because they are too busy worrying about things. It could be work, school, finances, or any one of a number of other things in life that people often worry about. Try to remember that most problems tend to work themselves out, and that almost nothing is as bad as it sometimes can seem. If you sense that your spouse or child is especially worried about something, plan a private date with them and give them an opportunity to share their concerns. Often just talking about the problem can help relieve the stress and worry, and you might be able to offer some suggestions or tips for helping them deal with the issue.

10) Help Each Other

Finally, and most importantly, remember that your family is a team, and you should always fully support your “team mates.” This includes assisting each other with chores when necessary, doing nice things for each other just because you know it is something they would like, and lending an ear or a helping hand when things are going bad. There is nothing better than knowing that you have the full support of all of your family members behind you.

11) Stay Active Together

Bonus Secret. Quality family time is very, very important.  Whether it is family means, times at the park, or doing chores together. The family that stays active, and does more things together creates stronger bonds and is much happier.

What are your secrets for a happy family? Scroll down to the bottom of this page and share your comments.

I don’t know if there is just one secret. Each child and each family is different. So, I will end with a brief story. It was the birth of my oldest son. It was a long painful labor for my wife. My oldest was born 10 pounds which really surprised everyone. Right after birth the midwife handed me my son for the first time. My hands were trembling, and tears rolling down my cheeks. As I held my son tenderly I looked at the midwife as if to say ‘now what?’ She simply replied “Just Love him”.  “Love” is the roots that binds and bonds the family together. For me is the true secret to a happy family. From there anything is possible, and that “Love” will get the family through good times and bad.