How do you define a healthy family?  What traits might characterize normal families?  The answers to these questions begin with some basic assumptions.  Dig a little deeper, however, and those characteristics become increasingly unique.  Rather than glossing over those things that make us unique, what an adventure life together can be when we start probing those more illusive qualities that each person brings to their family.

Sometimes families struggle with things to talk about.  Once we get past sharing information about work or school, the weather, the latest in sports events and other both necessary and more lighthearted topics, we struggle to talk about the deeper issues of life.

Looking for some suggestions?  Cited from a book by Delores Curran entitled Traits of a Healthy Family*, below are the findings she uncovered in her research.  Why not open some of these topics for  a family discussion?

The healthy family…

Trait 1: …communicates and listens.

Trait 2: …affirms and supports one another.

Trait 3: …teaches respect for others.

Trait 4: …develops a sense of trust.

Trait 5: …has a sense of play and humor.

Trait 6: …exhibits a sense of shared responsibility.

Trait 7: …teaches a sense of right and wrong.

Trait 8: …has a strong sense of family in which rituals and traditions abound.

Trait 9: …has a balance of interaction among members.

Trait 10: …has a shared religious core.

Trait 11: …respects the privacy of one another.

Trait 12: …values service to others.

Trait 13: …fosters table time and conversation.

Trait 14: …shares leisure time.

Trait 15: …admits to and seeks help with problems.

 

* Curran, Doris. Traits of a Healthy Family: Fifteen Traits Commonly Found in Healthy Families By Those Who Work With Them, 1983.