Wazzup? Moments

Have you noticed that over the last decade family homes have become larger? It seems that over a period of many years, generally speaking, families have been retreating from the community and tending to spend more time at home. So the home, needing to be a place where you can spend a lot of time, has become bigger. However, when homes grow bigger, separation and seclusion within a family can happen. Family members can all be home and never be together. They’re all in different rooms.

The home that I raised my kids in had many rooms, and sometimes I literally had to become a mini search party of one in order to find out where everyone was. I would be between tasks and hear the glorious but telltale sound of complete household silence; always glorious because there’s no noise, but telltale because the level of silence is a meter that gauges individual seclusion. Complete household silence usually indicates complete individual seclusion.

That’s when I would go on my one-man search party. As I found each child, I’d sit for a short time and engage him or her in a little “wazzup” talk. It takes only a few minutes, but it reconnects everyone to the family collective. The best part is that it doesn’t take long. You just need to take advantage of the minutes you have between tasks to personally connect with each of your children.

Another thing I did and still do to counteract individual seclusion and get in some quality family moments is to get some or all of us to seclude ourselves in the same room. If my wife and I are reading in the evening, sometimes we’ll grab our books and sit in the living room. Then we let the other family members know what we’re doing and they’ll sometimes grab their books and join us. I really love doing this because we end up laughing and talking and taking breaks together.

It takes only minutes to battle seclusion, but it’s worth it.