Working Together As a Family

One of the questions that we are often asked is “how do you as a family work together”.

This is an easy and a hard question.

Let me start with a bit about our dynamics. Our family started with the core of a brother and sister and their children. To this we have added spouses, stepchildren, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, in-laws, and friends that became family. From my perspective, the sister, the easy part is that we seem to have unique relationships that we have fostered for most of our lives. We raised our children to value family, to us value means spending time together, being there for one another, knowing that you should be able to come to each other even if the conversation is uncomfortable, recognizing what challenges we face in this world and what we can bring to the those that God puts in our path. We also live by the principle that helping people around us is extremely important, if not more, than helping ourselves. And we look to God for opportunities to come together as a family to help.

The hard part is that when I say that conversations can be uncomfortable, they sure can be at times. We are a family made up of intense personalities and when we talk it is often animated and even loud at times. It doesn’t always mean that we are frustrated or even angry but in an intense family, you often feel the need to get your point across. As an outsider, one may sit back in silence thinking we are upset with one another, but in the end, we agree or agree to disagree and we move forward. The thing that we work to focus on during these conversations is the heart of the person. We ask ourselves, “would that person purposely do that? Is it their heart to act this way or say these things?” From there, we are able to work through most issues and keep our relationships strong. Those same intense personality also must work together. Although, there is a boss (in our case 2 bosses), we don’t always agree with the “bosses”, but we know how to respect the authority put before us. That said, we are still family and when you know more about the boss because they are family, it is harder to control your thoughts and keep work, work and personal, personal. And in conversations, at times the intenseness of our personalities comes out. Each of us has had to deal with it in our own ways. In the beginning of Good2GoCo, it was harder, but it seems to have leveled off with a small uprising every now and then. We have mostly all found our place. And when family dinner begins on Friday….family is once again just family.

If you ask the family, I am the one that wears my heart on my sleeve, and I am the one that feels every hurt, offence, success, and joy of each family member so this past 3 years has been a particular roller coaster of emotions and growing. In the end, to me, working as a family is such a blessing. I could look at the challenges and focus on them, because there they will always be there, but I choose to focus on the blessing of being with and in this family. We are not a perfect family, but we are a real family. We start and end as family and that is the important part.

My name is Barb and I am blessed to be a part of this family.