Family Meeting · Saturday May 5, 2007 by Abbie
Here is the agenda for our family meeting:
1.Getting dressed
2.Power naps – report
3.messy house and help with chores
4.how to make Abbie happier
5.treats
6.changes to house
AOB
The minutes:
1.Ram is still not ready to put on his own socks and ankle supports, but is happy to carry on putting on the rest of his clothes in the morning. Will review again next month to see if he is ready to try to put his own socks on.
2.Ram says that he doesn’t like it when the video he is watching finishes before Abbie is finished her nap. We will try to make sure that the video is longer than 30 minutes and Ram will turn off the programme at the end, and not insist on watching to the end of the tape.
3.It has been noted that one of the problems is that people are not tidying up after themselves. Dxh felt that we had too many belongings. Abbie felt that there wasn’t enough storage places for what we have and the ones we had are not being used. As an example she pointed out that Dxh’s hat wasn’t put back on the hat hook last week when he left! It was also pointed out that Ram no longer helped with the chores that he had promised to do before Christmas. Ram said that he felt that the novelty had worn off. He suggested that he helps one month, then gets a month off then helps again. It was also agreed that everyone now takes their own dishes to the dishwasher after a meal, makes sure that things that have a place are put there when they are finished with, and a schedule was made up for cleaning the bathroom and cloakroom, and that Ram will help with folding the clothes.
4.This was raised by Ram. It seems that Ram gets scared when Abbie gets angry. Ram will try harder to remember when Abbie is having power naps and try not to wake her up. We will all put things away when we are finished with them, excluding Lego. Occasionally (not every weekend) a small area of the house will be blitzed in order to get it tidy as Abbie feels that the mess of the house is making her unhappy. We will think about how we can all allow Abbie a little bit more time to herself and discuss at next months meeting.
5.As agreed last month we will have treats during the meeting just like in real board meetings where they get doughnuts. This months treat was Kinder Surprise Eggs, which were opened and eaten at this point. It was decided that the treat should be varied from month to month, and that anyone can make a request.
6.The changes to the house were discussed. The new (to us) sofa arriving on Wednesday, what to do with the old one. The kitchen changes, the refurbishment of the home automation system, and the addition of storage shelves in the study and upstairs were discussed so that everyone, especially Ram, has a good idea of the changes to the house over the next year.
There was no AOB. The meeting was adjourned until next month.
It may seem strange to conduct family business by a business meeting, but it works really well. Ram finds them very stressful, but it gives us all a chance to be heard, and we can support him with the things that he is finding difficult in life at the moment. And it certainly helps the adults to keep on track too!
This afternoon we blitzed the area where the sofa will go, and put away a lot of things that Ram was finished with but finds difficult to actually put away. We also found a couple of missing things from under the old sofa, along with some plates and bowls.
The new policy of taken our own dishes to the dishwasher has worked well today. Dxh went to great lengths to point out that Abbie didn’t put her dishes in the dishwasher when he had. However, Abbie was able to point out that Dxh was so busy telling her that she hadn’t put all her dishes in the dishwasher that he forgot to put his tea mug in said dishwasher! Then later there was a great rush to see who could get their dishes in first!
And this evening I asked where Ram was going during Dr Who. He was putting his dishes in the dishwasher! I wonder how long that will last!
Today wasn’t all business and fun, there was some very educational moments too. We all spent some time playing the Popcap game Bookworm Adventures. Ram isn’t that good at finding the words from the 16 randomly given letters, but it turns out that Dxh isn’t either! Even though it would seem like cheating, we used the anagram solver to find the words, but I didn’t spell them out for Ram. I got him to spell them himself, with me breaking down the word into syllables and reminding him of some of the rules of spelling as we went.
It was a great way to spend the afternoon as a family after the emotional difficulties of the family meeting in the morning.
