“The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people—no mere father and mother—as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born.” Pearl S. Buck
I think Ms. Buck said it all in the above quote. We all need nurturing support systems to grow into well adjusted adults. Today’s families are busier than ever and face huge challenges as they try to keep up with it all.
According to Dr. Ed Hollenberg, author of Family Power, Managing the Challenges, “Family is, potentially, the most effective and excellent support system for assuring successful living. No nation can ignore this absolute truth without perilous disintegration of its basic foundation.”
To regain or increase the power of your family try this: Turn off the computer, TV, video games, cell phones, iPods and spend some REAL time with each other to just talk and listen to each other– take a walk, go to the beach, visit a zoo, museum, ball game—you get the idea. To grow and nurture your family support systems, include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. As the African quote goes, “It takes a village” so be sure to invite “your village” or ohana into your daily world and you just might discover one of the simplest secrets to successful families.