Creating a Family Culture
When we hear the word “culture” our minds might instantly go to the cuisine, art, or customs of a particular place. When we hear “workplace culture,” we might automatically think of how a company treats its employees. Culture is an important and essential part of identifying who or what makes a country or business unique. Likewise, having a family culture can help define your beliefs and create a sense of purpose and unity within your family unit. Here are some ideas on how to get started creating a family culture.
You can meet with your spouse or anyone else you’d like to involve in creating your culture. If you have children, get them involved! You may want to do some pre-planning though, or you could jump in headfirst together. Start by asking questions like:
What do we most value?
Who do we most admire or want to be like? What is it about that person that we want to emulate?
What legacy do we want to leave when we die? What do we want to be remembered for?
If a stranger came to live with us, what words would we most want them to use to describe us? What would we want to stick out about us?
Hopefully in answering those questions, you came up with some solid ideas on what your family truly stands for. For example, maybe your family values hard work, family time, vulnerability, and health at its core. Maybe it’s fun experiences, education, creativity and cleanliness. The variations are endless and as unique as each individual family!
Once you’ve narrowed down your values, try to come up with some sayings that make your values easy to remember. Just like a business creates slogans to help customers easily identify their brand or goals, you can create slogans that help to easily define and identify your family. Once you have them, post them somewhere visible in your home, whether on the fridge, command center, or even as art.
As you go forward, living according to your culture, you can always tweak and continue to define your family as you see fit. You can always add in rules and consequences, special holidays, favorite recipes, or any other things that make your family unique and that are important to you.
Hopefully by defining your family culture, it helps bring a greater sense of purpose and togetherness to your family!