Expert: Michele Dortch - 9/6/2007

Question
I would like to start having a "Family Night" tradition. My kids are little right now but I thought it would be nice to start having at least one special night that we can all count on as a family. The unique problem our family faces is that my husband's schedule is not consistent. He works for six days and then has three days off. Some weeks/months he works during the day, sometimes he works nights. We can't just set aside every Friday as Family Night or any other day to be the day. I've thought of having his second day off be Family Night or to maybe just have it on a Monday and hope he can stop home on a break to join us. Any suggestions?

Answer
Hi Gwen,

Perhaps the easiest way to create consistent family traditions despite an inconsistent work schedule is to change your perspective on how "family night" should look. While having this special time occur on the same night of every week is nice, it doesn't work for everyone. So instead of being bound by the calendar, try committing to the amount of time you want to spend together. This means shifting from a "Friday is Family Night" perspective to an approach where you commit to finding ANY 4-hour block of time to do something as a family each week.

Have fun with this. Work with your children to name this special time and build excitement over it during the week. Even though the day of the week or time of day may change from week to week, your children will appreciate and look forward to the consistency found in just having the time blocked every week.