Some of the posts below about the mental health epidemic got me thinking on this.

There was quite a bit of family history with mental problems on my side, including some lengthy state hospital stays. So I was pretty motivated to change the pattern. We tried some things I don’t mind sharing with our six kids to make our best hope to avoid the family history for them.

First, we committed my wife would be a stay at home mom. I know that’s not for everyone, but when I knew it was up to me to provide it made me work harder at it I think.

Second we always told our kids one of our family rules was they had to be involved in a sport and a talent (like being in x country and piano.). Or a job could count for the talent, but there always had to be a physically demanding sport that they could pick. This seemed to naturally control screen time.

Third, all my kids had to sleep in a snow cave, summit a mountain over 10k, and do a few 50 mile backpacking trips, and of course participate in church youth activities.

There was a lot of bellyaching, sacrifice of time and expenses in this but looking back I’m glad we stuck to our guns and didn’t let up on the plan. Kids have stayed on the missions and are all self sufficient.

Our family is not the most popular, well thought of, wealthy or prominent in anything but I feel pretty blessed that God showed us a path to success (so far) so I hope sharing this will be of some use.