Growing up, my mom was amazing at ensuring we had dinner together every night. In such a busy world we didn’t ALWAYS have the time, but it was instilled in me and today “family dinner” is a cherished part of our day.
With opposing work schedules, a teenager’s sports/social life, and a younger sibling with his own agenda (who would have thought a 4yr old had such a full calendar), sitting around the dinner table is our “family time”. However, asking the questions “How was your day”, “Did you have fun” or “How did you do”….I always got 1-word answers and then they retreated to eating as fast as they could so they could get back to a cell phone or tablet (which is always a fight but not allowed at the dinner table)
With that in mind, I elected to adopt a tradition of sorts from a friend. Rose & Thorn. It has become a daily routine and my family looks forward to it. They often are the starters of the conversation. My teenager will pretend to hate it but once he gets going it always ends in a smile.
How does it work? Simple – Ask everyone “What was your Rose and what was your Thorn?”
Rose – something good that happened that day. Something that made you smile that made you laugh or just over all made you feel good.
Thorn – something not so good that happened that day. Something that made you sad or frustrated or angry.
Most days we start here but we end up talking in detail about the situations and sometimes that thorn they thought ruined their day wasn’t as sharp as they thought 😊
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