July 12, 2001

Ideas for Family Communication

A memorable advertising slogan was by from a phone company that encouraged you to "reach out and touch someone." It was saying that communicating, especially with family members, is important. "Communicating with family members has many benefits," says Sean Brotherson, North Dakota State University Extension Service family life specialist. "It promotes understanding of one another, improves the quality of personal relationships and sends messages of love, comfort, and value."

Brotherson says family members should evaluate their communication strengths or weaknesses by asking the following questions:

• Do we communicate regularly in our family?
• What is preventing us from communicating?
• What can we do to communicate on a more regular basis?
• Do we know how to use different types of communication strategies?

Family members, friends, and relatives often enjoy hearing about one another and sharing information. "But sometimes the days and weeks pass quickly and we don’t keep in touch with loved ones," says Brotherson. "Sometimes people struggle with specific communication strategies. One of the most important is to simply make a commitment to regular family communication. That could be something like scheduling an hour once a week to call family members just to stay in touch."

A variety of methods can be used for communicating with others. One of the best, but now somewhat out of style, is writing letters. When was the last time you wrote someone a letter or sent a postcard? You may want to think of a way to make it a regular habit and carry a notebook with you just for writing letters when you get a few extra minutes. You may also want to have a list of people you would like to write to but haven’t corresponded with in a long time.

"E-mail is very easy to set up and a lot of commercial services provide free e-mail accounts," notes Brotherson. "It can also be used to send pictures and other correspondence. It allows you to do a lot of interactive communication that is fun. You can even have what is called ‘instant messaging’ that allows you to interact which each other on a real-time basis except it’s with a computer."

Another unique idea is the use of a correspondence bag. Keep a file where you can put newspaper clippings, photos or other items of interest about the family. Collect the items for a week or two and then photo copy it and send it to a family member with a note saying this is what is happening with your family.

Many families like to video tape children or family events and send copies to other family members. Sending audio tapes is another idea.

"Some families have started a family newsletter," says Brotherson. "The idea is to send it to different members of the family, have them add their own information and pass it along until it comes back to you."

"So there are a lot of different ways to communicate with family. You simply need to make a commitment and spend time doing it."

For more information on strengthening family communication, contact Brotherson at (701) 231- 6143 or e-mail at sbrother@ndsuext.nodak.edu .

###

Source: Sean Brotherson, (701) 231-6143, sbrother@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, Richard_Mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu

Click here to download an Audio clip to accompany this story. (338KB wav file) 

Click here to download an Audio clip to accompany this story. (618KB wav file)

Click here to download an Audio clip to accompany this story. (515KB wav file)