How to Use Family Meetings in the Living Room

Family Meetings provide a forum where family members feel safe to connect and solve problems. Your Family Meetings are where you would brainstorm ideas for structures like your Ways to be Helpful, celebrate achievements with your Celebration Ritual, and solve problems. Family meetings can take place at a set time (like every Monday after dinner) or as the need arises.

The P.E.A.C.E Process is the Conscious Discipline tool from the Premium Resources Toolkit used to help solve chronic problems in Your Family Meetings:

Problem: “I’ve noticed ______. It’s a problem for me because______.”

Explore: “Has anyone else noticed this? Is it a problem for you?”

Alternatives: “So the problem is _______.” Reframe the problem to focus on the action you want to see and relate it to safety if possible. (Instead of saying, “The problem is grabbing and hitting,” you would restate the problem as, “So the problem is that we’re having a hard time remembering to ask for a turn. What could we do differently?”)

Consensus: “As family, we will: ______.”

Evaluate: How will we know the problem is solved?