Top tips for creating a close family

Frederick J. Goodall, Blogger of "Mocha Dad" shares his top tips for parents on how to build a close, strong, and loving family
Parenting Tips - How To Create A Close Family
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Top tips for creating a close family

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I think the biggest piece of advise I'd give to any family to maintain your family, to keep it intact is start with relationship between the mom and the dad. I think when we have children a lot of people start to neglect that relationship and it's the core of our family unit. Moms and dads or husbands and wives, we need to have that close net relationship. We need to nurture and develop that relationship. We need to take time for one another, spend time with one another and have conversations with one another that don't always involve the children. That core relationship is so important and we cannot afford to neglect it so we need to start there. The net thing that we need to do is make sure that our children understand that we'll always be there for them and it's easy to say that but we have to prove it. I read a quote that said, "for children, love = time". We have to spend the proper amount of time children and people like to try and discern what's quality and all that stuff but for children, the time you spend with them is quality time. They want you there for them. You can play games with them, have conversations at the dinner table, sitting together. Having meals together is very important. We have a thing at our dinner table that we call roses and thorns. And every night each person has to go around the table and tell what's your rose, what's the good thing that happen and what's your thorn, what's the bad thing that happen today? The one rule we have is you have to have more roses that thorns. So we talk about our day and this gives us a venue to do that to understand where are good, where things are bad and how we can help each other in the situations where things didn't go as well that we thought they should and give each other some advise. So that's really helped us to grow closer as a family. Another thing that we try and do. My wife and I spend time with each child individually on dates. We call them. They maybe 15 minutes at a time, they maybe a whole night of going out but we're spending a time with each individual child and each child gets time with every parent. And it really helps them to really connect wit us on a one to one basis and it helps us collectively as a family to grow together and remain intact as a strong nuclear family.

Frederick J. Goodall, Blogger of "Mocha Dad" shares his top tips for parents on how to build a close, strong, and loving family

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Frederick J. Goodall

Blogger, "Mocha Dad"

Frederick J. Goodall is a writer, a speaker, and a father. In 2008, he started the popular fatherhood blog, "Mocha Dad" to chronicle his life as a dad and to counter the negative stereotypes regarding black fatherhood. He wanted to give readers a first-hand account of a black father who is intimately involved in his children’s lives. Now he uses the blog to not only capture his experiences, but also to help motivate other men to be more actively engaged and involved with their children, families, and communities.

Through his writing, Goodall attempts to address serious cultural and social issues. His articles and essays have been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals such as The Houston Chronicle, Essence, and Folio Weekly. His work has also appeared in the anthologies: Paper Thin/Soul Deep and The African-American Book of Values. In addition, Goodall is a regular contributor to the websites Mamiverse, Goldfishsmiles, Your Teen Mag, and Together Counts. Goodall also travels the country speaking on the topics of fatherhood, men’s issues, social media, and blogging.

Goodall was born in Houston, Texas and graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He currently lives in Houston with his wife and three kids.

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