September 1, 2024

Getting the family together was like herding cats for this first weekly meeting.
  • My daughter had been invited to hang out at a friend's house at the last minute over lunch.
  • My son was planning to attend go to a movie with a friend in the early evening.
  • My wife had committed to attending a play put on by some students in her school.
"Something's gotta give, guys. We are doing this."
Magically (almost), my daughter's plans were moved back a bit, so we were able to have turkey tacos for lunch.
I started from my agenda with a topic that was pretty tame: which music streaming service to go with.
My vote was for Tidal. They pay far better royalties than Spotify to their artists. But the fact that Spotify also has original podcasts and audiobooks won out (and also, I suspect, it was the platform the rest of the family was used to and had all their playlists organized). It was good that I was outvoted; our first meeting started with the rest of the family empowered.
When lunch was finished, we got out our planners. This was another source of contentiousness coming up. I wanted only paper planners. "But I only use my paper planner for school," my daughter protested. "I'd use my phone calendar for everything else." Her planner was pocket or purse sized, very traditional in the set up with one week per page.
My son, on the other end of the spectrum, couldn't find the bullet journal I had bought for him a year ago, so he brought with him a half filled sketchbook. He also brought his phone, where he tried to sneak a peak at a favorite Reddit thread.
We are going to have to eventually develop some norms, I thought. I made a note of it in my planner for next time.
The planning commenced with my wife at the whiteboard calendar. "Okay, tell me when you work." She wrote down shift times for both kids, then went into appointments and soccer matches.
I closed out by asking when we would be meeting next. "Like, in two weeks?" asked my son. "No, we are going to meet every week, sometime on the weekend, so we can look back on the previous week and look forward to the week ahead.
My daughter sighed and looked exasperated.
I responded.
"This isn't just about having family time together. It's about getting on our ducks in a row. If we are communicating with each other, then we are we can plan better for meals and we are not wasting food when you have to go buy meals out. It will save us money."
My wife explained more with a recent example of when I made spaghetti but everyone left. I ended up eating spaghetti as leftovers for the next two lunches.
We concluded with the giveaway of prizes from the Sweepy challenge, an app which allows you to earn points for chores. My wife was at the top of the leaderboard so you win a Spotify gift card. She said to use it for our first month's family subscription.
We agreed to another challenge in Sweepy: the digital declutter. We are tasked with cleaning up our technologies and living a more minimalist and present life.
"Who wants to facilitate the next meeting?" I asked. My son agreed to it. "You get to decide on the meal and on the fun activity."
As we dispersed, I asked my wife how she felt it went. "Messy, but fine." That sounded similar to the first day of school response from teachers. Not perfect and not how we anticipated it, but we did it.
After the meeting, my daughter gave my wife a gift: perfume she had wanted. "Oh, thank you, I am genuinely surprised." With the gift giving, did my daughter want to keep the good feelings going after our meeting? Riding the wave of positive emotions? I'd like to think so.