1. Dinner at a designated time
The first change I would like to make with my family is to have dinner at a designated time and have everyone present. I feel when we have dinner together we have actual conversations with one another rather than just on the phone or one on one. This is difficult in a large family as everyone is always busy at different times, but making time is important and can bring a family closer by having that time to talk and visit with one another. "Repetition of actions and words carries great meaning, eventually developing into ongoing family rituals." (Chapter 5, Page 116). In this designated time I feel it is important to not have cell phones or electronics at the table. It takes away from the communication when other's are talking on the phone or texting friends. As Seth Morgan stated "Not only is eating together a great way to stay connected to your family, but it is a great way to keep the house clean and neat." (http://www.students.ipfw.edu/~morgsb01/FamilyWebsite.html)
Also in Unit 2, under "Rules", Michael Knitter talked about his Sunday lunches with his family and how they were a great event. I feel as though this is another great idea and maybe more feasible in a large family rather than a weekly dinner. I enjoyed how Abby Shull mentioned in her web post how communication brings family closer.(http://familycommshull. blogspot.com/ 2008/12/final-project-three-changes.html).
2. Calendar/Information board
Next I would like to see that my family is staying in contact and knowing everyone's activities for the day. I liked Natalie Graves' idea on e-mailing each other to stay in contact.(http://www.student.ipfw.edu/~gravnj01/family.html#FINAL_PROJECT). This is similar to my own idea. It is a way to stay in contact and know each other's schedule. Having a large family makes it difficult to keep up with everyone's busy schedule with school and extracurricular activities. I think if we had an information board with all the activities posted for each day on it then everyone would know the schedule for the day, week, etc. There are many new things in technology that could be used for this type of calendar. For example an MS Outlook calendar, a home calendar, and even travel calendars. A random text to remind one another would be helpful but to a certain extent, I wouldn't want this to be an extreme and nag one another.
3. Quality time
Finally, I'd really like to see quality time together as a family without having to spend money. Obviously this is hard with a big family, but its important to stay close to one another. We've always been a close family and now that everyone is growing up I would hate to lose that. I thought it was interesting how Shannon Miller explained spending time with family and building memories (http://www.student.ipfw.edu/%20~%20millsl%2008/millerpage.html#Final_Project) (http://www.student.ipfw.edu/~millsl08/millerpage.html#Family_Research_Project). Shannon asked each family member about their families traditions. This shows that haveing all family members at the certain ritual was important to each person. I would love to do the same since everyone is getting older. I want the memories to continue! It seems that people always want to go eat or to a movie to spend quality time together, but with the economy the way it is today it would be nice to stay home and spend more quality time together. There are many options we have at home to accomplish this. For example, we could cook a nice dinner and play cards or a game system or even rent a movie. Renting a movie and cooking dinner is much cheaper than going to a movie and out eat. This is difficult and expensive with a large family. Just spending quality time at home would be nice to have every once in a while. "Even though I consider my family to be close, we often get caught up in life."(http://www.freewebs.com/humbleabode/familyresearchproject.htm).
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