I try to limit the family meetings.
When I was a kid, my mom was constantly holding family meetings as it was sort of the progressive thing to do back then! But in fact, she would hold these meetings not to get most people on the same page but to hammer us kids on our behavior.
That’s my mom though. She’s a bit of a drama queen to this day. So I’ve never been one to do that with my kids. If there is a problem inside the central a/c of our home, my husband and I deal with it then and there, then and there is no screaming or drama. There is only direction and accountability on just about every occasion. Yet, I did hold a bit of a family meeting the other night during dinner. And the topic was the a/c. Of course, that seems like a ridiculous conversation to be having in the middle of winter. But where my husband and I live, the winter is pretty mild and the greatest Heating and A/C issue is the a/c the rest of the year. The cost of all that cooling comfort has come to be a burden on our budget. So this year, I wanted the family to be on the same page with a new Heating and A/C strategy. When the temperatures go up in the Spring, we are going to leave the a/c off. In fact, we are going to wait as long as my husband and I can to turn on the a/c. By acclimating to the heat and the humidity, we are going to need less a/c during the summer. And I also reminded them that we are going to double down on control unit discipline and the new a/c strategy this Spring.