Every family has a routine. If you’re late for school every day, that’s part of your routine. Dinner time might consistently include tears and fights. Or maybe bedtime is always a struggle. Whatever you do consistently, whether it’s helpful or unhelpful, is part of your routine.
Your family’s routine is how you organize your life and where you spend your time. When families have a solid, helpful routine, the members know who does what, when, and how often.
Routines also tell your family what is important. The things that we do every day are the things that matter most. Our routine habits can strengthen our family bonds by promoting belonging, togetherness, and continuity across time.
Routine is also what creates a predictable home environment where everyone feels safe. In safe families, members know what to expect and who they can rely on. Families with a solid routine also experience lower stress levels.
A routine is hard work, but the benefits are endless. Your family routine will help you:
- Stay organized
- Maintain control over your schedule and environment
- Make decisions
- Feel more confident
- Be more efficient
- Have more fun
- Feel less overwhelmed
Here are some questions to get you started:
- Who needs to be involved in your daily family routine?
- What is one thing you do with your family every single day?
- What does your family do every year that you love?
- What does your family do every year that you hate?
- Who creates the routines in your family?
- What does your morning routine look like most days?
- What does your evening routine look like most days?
- What is a habit you’d like to develop for your family?
- What is one belief that has withstood the test of time in your family?
- What is one belief that has changed among the generations of your family?
- Why is it hard for your family to maintain a routine?
- What are you still doing in your family that was also done by the previous two generations?
- How can each member of your family participate in the routine?
Create Your Daily Family Routine
- Make a list of what needs to get done.
Think of everything that needs to get done in your family each week. Each person in the family may want to make their own list and you will create a list for the entire family.
- Put them in order.
Take a moment to put every item on the list in the order it needs to happen each day.
- Find a way to display or track your daily family routine.
You may want to display different parts of the routine (morning, evening, bathtime, etc.) in different parts of the home.
- Use your family meeting to go over each person’s routine and make sure that they understand their responsibilities.
If you have small children or dependent adults in the home, they will need to understand their role and who is going to help them with each task.
- Practice the routine and be open to change.
Your routine will take time to get used to. Make sure you give each member of the family adequate time to adjust to the routine. If things aren’t working after some time, it’s okay to adjust the routine.
Having flexible, reliable routines will help your family thrive.
There will be days where your family will get thrown off track and things will be chaotic, but you can always come back to your routine. Give yourself grace on those stressful days and know that you can always get back on track.