Hopelessly Devoted: Practices to Knit Your Family Together #032

We long for our family to be a cohesive unit that celebrates the individuals in it. We want a home culture that creates a sense of belonging for our children, promotes self-worth, and builds a devoted family.

During this episode we discuss how we can combat isolation and loneliness in our families through practices that bring us together and teach us to communicate, negotiate, and see each other. We cover the importance of starting all of this with shared values that are universally understood by the whole family. And, we talk about a few items we emphasize in our home:

• Siblings supporting each other
• Modeling and teaching our children to encourage each other
• Finding activities we enjoy to do together
• Balancing the different needs of kids with different personalities, likes/dislikes, and at different ages / stages

Two pieces of research we mention during today's podcast are from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine (that's a mouthful!)

Rachael also has some thoughts on the toilet paper usage (or lack thereof) in our house, and she talks through a few tips for scheduling your family's time during "social distancing" caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Stay safe and healthy!!


Since we won't have the NCAA tournament this year, the Stat of the Week is all about it. Can you name the top scorers in tournament history? Do you know the only person to go to an Ivy League school and score more than 300 points in the NCAA tournament? (Also, David totally botches Jeremy Lin's name when talking about NBA players from the Ivy League.)


We truly appreciate you listening! Please take a minute to share this episode with a friend who might be encouraged by this conversation or who just needs a good laugh at our expense.

Also, please join our Growing Up with Kids Facebook group and engage in the encouraging conversation about the heart of marriage and parenting.