Creating a Family Culture

I love podcasts. I just got into them in the last year -- personal finance, parenting, blogging... I can work on other things and listen. I discovered Power of Moms and it has been a game changer. Food for my mama soul. Highly recommend.

I shared this podcast from Power of Moms about family identity and culture with my husband on one of our road trips to visit with family.

What is our family culture?

I'd say as a family we value hard work. We expect nothing to be handed to us, and we know we'll have to hustle to keep moving forward. Though our little lady recently said, "I don't want to do your jobs" when I asked her to do something, that was swiftly corrected. We emphasize that we are a team and we all have to help each other so we can have fun and enjoy our time together. Our concept of team wasn't solidified until after our daughter was born, when my husband had emergency surgery.

We value honesty in our family. No one is more honest than a toddler. Brutally so at times. But the Mr. and I also place high value on honesty and we keep that at the forefront of our relationship with one another and with our children. If we can't be honest with each other, then what's the point of all of this? This also includes being honest with ourselves, examining our own motivations and aspirations.

Love is a big part of our family culture, the glue that holds us all together. The Mr. and I are affectionate with each other and with the kids. There is lots of cuddling and saying "I love you" and hugs and kisses. And I frequently remind the kids to "love each other" when it seems they're about to have a cage match in the playroom.

Surprisingly, and delightfully to this art history loving mama, art is a part of our family culture. Our little lady says that she is an artist. She is prolific in her art, covering our refrigerator and a wall in our back room with her latest creations. 

And like many artists, she can be messy.

But I suppose she's just mimicking her mama's work area. My desk is covered in craft supplies and projects, lists, and pages torn from magazines.

So we throw a little grace in there. Messy spaces that we don't rush to clean up (even if we had the energy to do that every day). Room to make mistakes and forgive one another. Every day is a fresh start.

We value education. We read to the kids every night. Oh how I hope they love to read as they get older.

The Mr. and I read and consume tons of information ourselves. Our view of the world is that there is always something new to learn, and we are hungry for new knowledge. I've never known anyone who could absorb information like my Mr. He can read it and know it, spin it around in his head and add something new to it. We hope to pass that hunger on to our children. We encourage the kids to see new things, to open their eyes during walks down the neighborhood sidewalks and collect their "treasures". Jars of acorns and dried berries and a basket full of rocks.

Life in our family is far from perfect, but that's where humor helps. A lot. There have been so many times in our marriage and life as a family where if we could not laugh, we would have cried. Our little lady is even trying to tell jokes at the dinner table now. Of course, she's 5 so they don't make much sense, but she just laughs and laughs after the supposed punchline. You can't help but join her.

My family isn't perfect, it's a work in progress. I'm very proud of what we four beings have become together.