How Healthy is Your Family?

A family’s health does not just refer to physical wellness. Rather, it is a complex web of factors that determines how healthy a family is at its core.

When I envision what a healthy family looks like,...
...I think of one that commits to putting family first, that spends time together, that offers its members security and comfort, that shows respect of its members’ unique characteristics and needs, that sets boundaries of acceptable behavior and shares similar values.

A healthy family accepts that its members will change and grow over time. A healthy family does have conflicts but uses honest communication, reasonable emotional expressions and apologies to ensure that these conflicts don’t negatively impact family relationships. A healthy family strives to safeguard its members mental, physical and emotional lives.

Having a healthy family, just like having a healthy body, is not an easy feat. It takes patience and persistence to do all the things that a healthy family requires. Just as a person might not be as healthy as she could be if, on any given day, she ate too many treats, didn’t exercise and stayed up too late watching television, a family is not always in a state of perfect health.

Like most of life, developing and maintaining a healthy family is a long, winding, and mostly fulfilling journey.
 
What would your family’s diagnosis be? Is your family “healthy” right now?
 
Contributed by Carrie Vittitoe, parent-writer for Today’s Family magazine.
Photo source: Made for Mums