Parenting: Ages 5-11: A living legacy � Encouraging kids to climb your family's tree

Parenting: Ages 5-11: A living legacy � Encouraging kids to climb your family's tree

What History Teaches About Growth & Family

The Good Sons Club views family growth from the perspective of growing the extended family's ability to act as a unit. A family unit that provides an ever greater amount of mutual aid and support. A family unit which grows in the ability to deal with adversity and create opportunity.

History provides many examples of families that have sustained long periods of such growth. The Medici, The Rockefeller, The Rothschild and others.

It is too easy to dwell on the excesses and failings of these historic families. This is unfortunate. As they all illustrate the power of dynastic thinking.

The challenge is to weed out the failings and nurture the wisdom from their history.

Family Growth Vs Other Institutions

Look at almost all organizations and institutions that we participate in. Each has a desire to grow its membership, to increase their influence over events, to act as a unit and to sustain themselves over a great period of time.

Churches act this way, Unions, Businesses, Government agencies, Schools and Universities, Philanthropic Institutions of all types. I look at families and few act this same way. In many ways families are producing the contributors and contributions to public institutions. The goals are written down, proclaimed loudly and instilled into their members. Symbols and rituals reinforce the goals. All intended towards growth. Formal rules, laws and regulations are enforced to insure the process.

Families need to use the same tools, use the same long view and avoid being empty of purpose. Growing the family's' ability to deal with adversity to create opportunity while aiming at the goal of providing mutual aid and support.

What Is The Good Sons Club View Of Growth?

In the context of a dynamic extended family, growth means:

As time goes on the extended family adds to its ability to provide mutual aid and support. In addition, the family adds to its ability to respond to adversity and take advantage of opportunity. The extended family adds members through marriage, birth, adoption and friendships.

It does not mean that we advocate having many children. However, we do advocate that family size not be stigmatized. Specificaly, when a couple does decide to have a great number of children, no stigma should be attached.

The Good Sons Club does advocate that extended families provide an ever increasing anount of mutual aid and support. An ever increasing ability to provide mutual aid and support needs to be seen within the context of individual contribution.

Furthermore, The Good Sons Club sees that an ever increasing ability to provide mutual aid and support is made possible because growth is made sustainable through family unity, contributions from all members and by aiming to have a long legacy.

Thus, we return to the concept of The Dynamic Family Table: Mutual Aid And Support resting upon the legs of growth, contribution, unity and longevity.

February's Theme Growth

This months theme will be about applying The Good Sons Club principle of growth.
Growth is the First leg of The Dynamic Family Table concept. We aim to be thought provoking.

• What is The Good Sons Club definition of growth?
• Does The Good Sons Club advocate having many children?
• How does growing of a family compare to growing a business?
• What can History teach about growth and family?
• Do other institutions grow at the expense of family?
• What about management of growth?
• Why does growth matter?
• Who would want a large family?
• What about the many conflicts a large family produces?