You and your partner had your son and daughter pretty close together; you became pregnant with your daughter when your little boy was just 1 year old! You were delighted at this, as you thought this would mean it would be a lot easier to organise and align your family’s timetables and various activities. But now your children are reaching the ages of 6 and 7, you’re realising just how different they are.

While your son loves staying indoors and doing puzzles, your daughter is more outgoing and wants to be taken to the playground or to playdates as often as possible. Your partner is at work most of the time, and has interests and hobbies of his own! Therefore, you have to admit, you’ve been finding it difficult to get everyone organised in times of late.

If you can relate to this scenario, then you’re not alone in that feeling of overwhelm. Many parents will experience this when attempting to get their family organised. As parents, we all want family time to be prioritised and to raise children who are considerate of their family members’ differing interests. But the reality is closer to the fact that everyone is always getting pulled in different directions, and finding time to make everyone happy can be difficult.

So, we thought it would be useful to delve further into this topic and find some constructive ways that you can get your family organised, while balancing everyone’s differing interests, and properly articulating your priorities for your children.

But before talking about some practical ways you can go about this, let’s outline just why this topic is so important.

Why is it important to get your family organised?

As a parent, we know that you’ll want to make time for what’s important to your children, what’s important to your partner, and of course, what’s important to you! However, a part of raising a healthy and happy family is understanding that everyone needs to compromise at times. Working towards building a more organised, collaborative family in this sense is extremely important in this sense. Not only will it allow all members to learn to be considerate of one another, but it will also lay the groundwork for a timetable that works for everyone, and a schedule that you will be able to rely on for the long term.

Now that we’ve talked about why getting your family organised is important, let’s move on to the how!

What are some ways to help my family get organised?

Outline your mission. Running a family is sort of like running a business, there are logistics involved, and the operation needs to be led by a clear mission statement! So, the first step is to think about what your mission or goal for your family is, what your family should be prioritising, what your days will look like on average, and so on. Although there’s no set time you have to outline your mission, a good time to do this is when your children are around school-age. The schedule you adopt at this time will be one you can rely on for quite a few years to come.

Express and align your values and priorities with your family. Talking openly with your family about their differing values and priorities will be very helpful. It opens up the communication lines between every family member and allows you to all evaluate what’s important to each of you and why. It’s crucial to have this understanding before creating a rigid timetable and organising everyone.

Here are some more detailed steps to take to get your family organised:

Write down your overarching family mission statement. What is your main goal for your family as a unit?

Write down three goals for your children. For example, big life goals such as helping them to attend university one day.

Write down three priorities for yourself. For example, finishing an art project you’ve been meaning to do, seeing friends, working, or exercising.

Write down three activities you have to do on weekdays. For example, eating one meal with your children, managing to get some work done, being present for their bedtime, and so on.

Write down three activities you must do on weekends. For example, religious services, competitive sports, and seeing family.

Discuss these points with your family. You might discover that you and your family members are completely aligned on all these points. Or, that you have completely different priorities! Either way, it’s good to touch base on this, and understand more about what is important to one another.

How to help your family get organised (Part 1)

Well begun is half done, says Unii.