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The Take Back Your Family Time video and
facilitator guide were produced in the Spring of 2004 by the College
of Human Ecology at the University of Minnesota. The video features
Dr. Bill Doherty as he discusses overscheduled kids and underconnected
families with a community in Minnesota. Although this discussion
occurred in 2003, the events leading up to it began in the late
1990s when Dr. Doherty and colleagues initiated the Putting
Family First movement.
Putting Family First is a group of citizens building a community
where family life is an honored and celebrated priority. The desired
future for the family is one in which families: make time and activities
together a high priority in their decision making; set conscious
limits on the scheduling of outside activities in order to honor
the values they hold about family time; set limits on television,
the Internet and other electronic media if these are dominating
family life inside the home; and seek out ways to participate together
in activities that build and serve their communities.
Similarly, the desired future for the community is one in which
schools, faith communities, neighborhoods, and other groups: provide
families with resources to develop deeper bonds in a fragmenting
world; offer regular intergenerational activities so that whole
families can participate; and have explicit working policies that
acknowledge, support, and respect families' decisions to make family
time a priority. The desired future for employers is to have explicit
working policies that honor families' time and energy needs.
Through lectures, presentations, and TV appearances, Dr. Doherty
has spread the word about the message behind Putting Family
First. The Take Back Your Family Time video and facilitator
guide is the most recent and large-scale piece of this effort to
help families and communities reclaim their family time.
Find
out more about the Putting Family First movement |
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Last
modified on
July 31, 2006