Family Meetings

[smallfabric]

Hi, I am new. This is my first post. I have 4 children:
DS, 19
DS, 16,
DD, 14,
DS,11
We are due to go on holiday and the tension erupted lats night with a big family row. I won't go into the details but my husband has suggested a family meeting. It will be a first. Any tips?

Find certain ground rules have to be laid down, we do the 'Lord of the Flies' idea that holding an object, a crystal turtle in our case, entitles that person only to speak, hopefully with a better outcome!. No interrupting or insults and you can only speak for 2 mins without passing the turtle!! It works for us but we have done this since the children were much younger. Now they are teenagers they sometimes call meetings to discuss issues such as why they should be able to go to a music festival and it does provide a forum for calm, rational discussion. Good luck!