We live in a time when things are more secure than they ever have been in the past, and yet we fail to appreciate it enough. Most of us end up concentrating on the wrong things and mistake them to be the biggest issues to have ever come up in society. There are certain life aspects which are not as certain as they once seemed of course, but we will get to that part later on.
That being said, not much has changed in terms of the basics that secure the bonds of a happy and successful family life. In order for a family to be happy and secure, it needs to be supported by a good financial plan for both the present and the future, but that’s not all. Stay with us as we discuss some fundamental concepts of building a happy family together, as well as some steps that can lead to a happier and more secure future.
The Bond Between Parents Directly Affects Children
It is no secret that even the richest families in the world do not always host the happiest children, simply because the parents were never happy to begin with. If you are to have a family where the children truly feel happy, the bond between the parents need to be strong as well.
Teen angst is a common issue that families often have to deal with, and it can get quite troubling for both parents and the children at times. However, it has also been observed that a family where the parents share a good relationship has a less likely chance to see children develop into troubled teenagers.
This is not to say that if you and your spouse share a great relationship, everything is going to be fine with your children automatically, because they need the attention too, which we will get to in the next part.
The Bond between Parents and Children Needs to be Dynamic
It’s true that sharing a good relationship with your spouse has a direct and positive effect on your children, but that alone is not enough. Children of all ages need the attention of their mom and dad which unfortunately is both misrepresented by them and misunderstood by the parents as they begin to grow up.
According to psychiatrists and therapists who deal with family bonding issues on a fairly regular basis, the bonding process between children and their parents need to start early on. However, there are stages and changes which the parents should be aware of in advance. The problem is that, while it’s easy to build a loving relationship with a toddler and a preschooler, as they reach middle school and begin to grow up, their mentality, expectations, and demands begin to change as well. It can be an effect of multiple factors, which range from hormonal to academical and peer pressure. During these periods, even they are unsure about what they want exactly, and their shift in personality, behavior, etc. begins to affect the parents in turn. If treated as simply bad behavior, the relationship between the child and the parents soon changes into one of animosity, which is to be avoided by being aware of what’s going on.
Expect the changes, accept some of them, and talk freely about the rest with your growing child. The idea here is to not let the bond slip completely, even when it’s not as strong as it used to be once. Seeking the help of a family therapist is not a bad idea if you and your spouse agree on it.
Try to refrain from the blame game, be both understanding and strict where necessary and the children will come around after a while because no teen stays a teen forever!
Preparing for the Future: Saving Money and Building a Better Home
Building a better home may not only pertain to the family bonds but the actual condition of the home itself. It is hard to define what an ideal house should feel like because it will vary from location to location, as well as the nature of the family members living in that house. However, it is possible to both save money, redecorate and teach some important values to your children by switching to a more power-friendly lifestyle.
Now here’s the interesting bit, shifting to a greener, eco-friendly lifestyle will help you save money, and your children will learn the values of respecting our depreciating energy sources from early childhood, but none of that has to come at the expense of sacrificing comfort in any way.
If it almost seems contradictory or too good to be true, then that’s only because it was so at one point in time. Changing to a greener lifestyle simply meant making sacrifices, reducing power consumption and more or less, living a less modern life! However, thanks to tremendous advances made in solar energy generation and solar battery storage in the residential sector, that sacrifice is not necessary anymore.
Get a solar roof or any other kind of photovoltaic system that’s suited to your budget and location, but couple it with a solar battery storage installation as well. As the popular solar battery storage company, Semper Solaris explains, if you sell the stored electricity back to your grid during on-hours and use the stored energy from the battery storage installation during off-hours, you can potentially end up earning more than you pay on your electricity bills per year! As this was not even thought possible until the introduction of the Tesla Powerwall, things really have changed dramatically.
What all this means is that irrespective of your home’s power needs, no sacrifice needs to be made here if you are generating your own electricity for the most part. In California, most solar-powered homes generate enough electricity to power through all their daily needs and even sell back the rest to the grid on most days. If you ever wanted to build a happy, green home without sacrificing on any of the modern comforts, it’s possible to do with a simple solar system and battery storage installation now. On top of that, there’s no economic trade-off either, as you end up earning more money than you had to spend on the system over time.
The Finances: Tricky as Always
There is no simple way to define how you should go about managing your finances, because there are so many variables here. However, the following few tips are still mostly relevant for the average family to build a financial future for themselves and their children:
- Always invest in that nest egg; college funds, future uncertainties, etc. are all real issues to prepare for
- Don’t neglect the present either; strike a realistic financial balance and divide your total monthly earnings accordingly
- If the opportunity is there, consider advanced online education to further increase your income, without having to stop working
- A cutback can be managed, as long as you have a plan for making up the deficit, or at least working on it!
This is not supposed to be an all-inclusive list, but the best part about everything we just discussed is that you can’t really go wrong with any of it.
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