Family Mantra

Many of us often tend to take our family for granted. It could  be our dad, mom, brothers or sisters, we don't give them the importance they deserve. We are so busy with our professional life that we hardly have time for our loved ones. Of course, we are working hard to keep our family happy but in the course of doing so, we are letting that special time just slip off our hands without any guarantee of our future.

I have grown up listening that we should work hard to earn money and save it for our future. What if we are not alive to enjoy the luxury and comfort? What if we are not alive to spend that money on our family? What value does that money have other than just satisfying few daily needs? Having said that it does not mean that we should neglect our professional work but we need to find a  balance between family life and professional life.

Some of you may feel it’s impossible and few may say its difficult to make time. Whatever the reason is, you will have to make some time for your family. They are the people who will be there by your side during your ups and downs without expecting anything in return. I'm sure everyone agrees that we are lucky to have a family. 

So, how do we make extra time for our family or how do you make them feel that they are important? Every person may have their unique way but here is my way of showing them  they are important to me:

Celebrate special days : When we were young, our parents celebrated our special days and it’s our time to do the same for them and make them feel special. This does not mean that we spend a lot of money when we cannot afford, but we should celebrate within our financial reach. I wish my family members on their special days like birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Parent's Day, Raksha Bandhan etc. I involve others from the family to plan a surprise for one specific member on their special day. We plan on what to gift, go shopping together, cook or order something  etc. We share the expenses as well. The involvement of other members from the family makes it more interesting and continues to keep the bonding in the family.

30 to 60 Minutes Everyday:  We spend a major part of our lives working in the office. After we are back from work, we are so tired that most of us just have food, spend time on our mobile phones and go to sleep. Next day we go back to work and this cycle continues. Seeing us tired, our parents feel that we should not be disturbed and they let us be on our own. There might be things that our mom wants to share with us but cannot, there might be things our dad wants to discuss but he does not get the opportunity, our siblings might want some help from us but they do not get it. These points motivated me to make sure  that I spend 30 to 60 minutes every day with my family members. During this time I avoid using my phone so that I can give my complete 30 to 60 minutes to them. Most of the time  I choose this time when everyone’s together at home, especially during breakfast, lunch or dinner or may be even while watching some programs on TV. This might be challenging if we are working in shifts and so you might want to spend time based on common availability of you and each family member at least twice or thrice a week.

Dining once a month: Even if there is no occasion to cook or order something special, we should still plan one day in a month to eat something that all the members in the family like. This way we can have our mom rest for a while and enjoy what she likes. Living in a world where food can be ordered online, we have a liberty to order our favorite item from our favorite restaurant and sit together to enjoy the meal and create some strong bonding with our famil. By doing this, you will actually understand that our parents are also human beings who want to taste different food but would hesitate to tell us. This way we can keep them happy and also make them feel that we care for them.

Mom's salary : We all work under tremendous pressure in office and because we cannot vent out our frustration in office, we start taking it out on our family members for silly things (especially on our mom). But if we spend some time to analyze how much household work our mom  does, we will realize that our pressure is next to nothing. Our mom has to work everyday for 365 days without any holidays or payment. Imagine our situation if we had to work in office without holidays or payments!! I'm sure now you realize why moms are special. Moms don't ask for salary but it’s our duty to understand their needs. They hesitate to ask us money but we make them feel really low by asking thousand questions to know why they want the money. We should pay them monthly salary. They need not ask our dad or others in the family for money. Moms usually spend for the family first and then on themselves. Additionally, this will motivate them to work better at home, cook even more delicious food for us and this makes everyone happy. Paying them salary will only multiply happiness in everybody's life in the family. Every working member in the family should pay mom based on their income and expenses they are responsible for.

These are only few of the tips and I believe there can be N number of ways to make time for them. You just need to explore.

If you have any such ideas which can help people in some way or the other, please get in touch with me by filling the form on the right and I will get in touch with you.