What decides the direction of your family? Today starts a two-part series on defining your family values and how you can make decisions based on the things that are most important to you.

You’ll Learn:

• How my husband responded when I asked him (out of the blue) about his biggest personal value
• How to figure out your family’s core values
• Some of our family values and what they look like in real life
• An example of a simply family value statement

The goal with this exercise is to find 5-8 core values that you’ll share as a family and as a couple in your parenting.

🎁As a special gift to my listeners, I’m also giving you a FREE Defining Your Family Values worksheet. Click here to get yours now.

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Parenting can be really, really confusing.

Maybe you’ve wondered…

What am I supposed to do here?

Do I let my kid go to this birthday party?

Do I let them quit the sports team?

Do I let them not go to our religious service?

Do I let them blow off steam by swearing?

These are hard questions to figure out, and it’s easy to find yourself making decisions based on what your kids want, how you feel in the moment, or how your children feel in the moment.

Your family values can serve as a guide when you’re answering the tough questions of parenting. You can look at your values and decide…

Is this aligned with the things that are important to us?

Is this decision going to help us get our kids closer to our values and where we wanna take our family?

Or is this decision going to undermine our family values?

Values are defined as a person's principles or standards of behavior. So, you're figuring out what is important to you, how you want to show up and act in the world, and then putting words to those values.

This is a very simple thing, AND it requires a lot of thinking and self-reflection. If you don’t have the capacity to dive into this right now, that’s okay. Come back to it when you’re ready.

Some times that I feel are natural times to talk about values are:

• The beginning of a new calendar year
• The beginning of the school year
• Around a birthday
• Around a day of grieving
• Religious holidays

The change of seasons can also be an invitation to look at your intentions for the coming season, how you want to show up, and what you want your kids to work on.

The goal with this exercise is to find 5-8 core values that you’ll share as a family and as a couple in your parenting.

Start with yourself. Before you think about your family as a whole, look at your life as an individual. What is important for you as a person?

Looking at what's important to you and what bothers you about other people or yourself is going to be a big clue about what you value as a person. When you get angry about a behavior, what value is that rubbing up against?

I give you a ton of examples to get you started in the free Family Values worksheet.

Discuss values with your co-parent (if you have one). Encourage them to do their own individual reflection, and then come together to talk about it. Take turns talking about your values and asking each other questions about what that means to the other person and how it shows up for them.

Identify shared...