Have you ever wished parenting was a little simpler? Here is the Eyres’ personal story about seeking and writing about simpler parenting: After their 26th book on Teaching Children Values became a #1 New York Times Bestseller, the Eyres’ publisher, Simon and Schuster, signed them to a 5 book contract with complete freedom to write about whatever they wished. In their speaking engagements with parents around the world, Richard and Linda had been teaching the goal of creating a Family Culture that is stronger than all the other cultures that swirl around our children and suggesting three ways to create such a culture. So they decided that their next book should reflect this goal and be called Three Steps to a Strong Family.
This week on their Eyres on the Road podcast, the Eyres talk about the three things that create a strong culture–the three things that every lasting institution has: A set of rules or laws (a legal system), A way of sharing responsibility (an economy) and repeating rituals that hold people together (lasting traditions). If we want our families to be lasting institutions, we must have these same three things–A family legal system, a family economy, and a set of powerful family traditions. If parents build these three things (or three steps) thoughtfully and deliberately, and if they involve the kids in creating each of the three steps, they will maximize their family’s chance to thrive, to be strong, and to last.