Principles For Parents To Consider When Making A Decision Within The Family Unit

Parents need to:

• always consider how important the decision is for the child and family;
• think about whether the decision offers a learning opportunity for the child;
• ensure that important decisions are worked on by those in the family who have a stake in the outcome;
• stay personally close to important decisions which are unfamiliar in nature;
• seek to establish mutual interest so that the child comes to understand and share the healthy goals of the family;
• involve children in decision making whenever their commitment is uncertain yet important;
• involve the children to improve the quality of decisions when their perspectives and knowledge are called for;
• use the whole family to improve the quality of decisions when a lot of thought and consideration is required;
• evaluate family decision making against these Principles in the short, medium and long term.

The Tenets underpinning this approach are as follows:

• No one decision making style is universally applicable to all family decision making situations.
• No one decision making style is inherently better than any other.
• Effective parents and carers gear their style to the nature of the issue and the developmental stage and characteristics of the children involved.
• Each decision-making situation can be evaluated to determine the most appropriate decision making style.
• Effective parental decision making involves a preparedness to adopt different styles of decision making.
• Effective parental decision making is a skill that can be learned.