School Year Family Tradition: High/Low
I remember watching a film with my wife some years back called, “The Story of Us.” It chronicles the various chapters, snippets, and moments back and forth over the years that have led one married couple to their current crisis crossroads. As a guy who has been married for 27 years and who has worked as a marriage and family therapist for 25 years, I’ll say Rob Reiner and company did an excellent job of depicting the ups and downs and joys and challenges of married life. But, for some reason, the element in this film that has always stuck with me the most is when the family is shown having one of their weekly “High/Low” conversations that appear to be a mainstay and tradition during at least one season of their children’s adolescent years. Allow me to explain and recommend this simple conversational structure to you…
Choose a time to set as a weekly family conversational checkpoint where the whole family can sit and discuss together. Each personal takes turns sharing with the rest of the family what they consider to be the High Point and Low Point of the past/current week. No phones or other distractions during this time. Genuine curious questions are allowed as follow-ups, but no judgement or criticism is allowed in this conversation. As parents, be sure you are fully listening and attending to what your kids are sharing with you. Use it as a time to model respect and care for one another.
And that’s it. Pretty simple! Enjoy, share, learn, and grow in your family journey together.
And by the way, in the image at the top of this post, my son and I are actually both having a grand time facing the white water of the Snake River in Wyoming together with our dear friends. It’s just that I found myself in the “Wet Seat,” and at that moment was taking VERY seriously the Captain’s directions about what we needed to do to help him keep our raft afloat and safely moving where we want to go, and my son’s focus at that moment was the delight he found in how much water was pummeling his old man in the face right in front of him while he stayed almost dry.
