The Secrets of Happy Families: Surprising New Ideas to Bring More Togetherness, Less Chaos, and Greater Joy

I have seen several TED talks by Bruce Feiler and I just had to purchase this book. It has such great advice and tips for families how to connect, know where they came from (family history) and where they want to go--creating memories and great experiences.

I listen to this book through audio and it was really good but I was bookmarking like crazy and was using Libby so could not save any of my bookmarks after the book went away. I bought the actual book so that I could reread it and make highlights and along the way. I've already implemented a couple of the ideas from this book and the the response from my kiddos has been wonderful. We are a military family and my husband will be leaving soon for deployment so I really need to create structure, routine and love in our family so we can work together when he's away.

I read parenting books occasionally - mostly when the kids are making me nuts for an extended period of time or I'm feeling like a bit of a failure as a mom. Usually what I read frustrates me because I am reminded that I shouldn't yell - in fact, shouldn't ever lose my cool, or has a complex process that I'm not going to implement long term. I read the sample of this book and decided to buy it. I actually stayed up late reading it and finished it this morning. Normally, only fiction has that affect on me. I've already recommended it to a friend and am thinking of buying it for a few people. I liked the way the information was presented, I like the no-nonsense lack of navel gazing, and the tips provided (not all, but a lot of them) make sense to me. Most of this is specific, checklist task type of items all designed to improve communication and increase happiness and satisfaction within the family. Who doesn't love that?My family is having our first weekly meeting tonight. This idea appeals to me a lot, because as I read this book, it occurred to me that I'm the one who keeps the calendar/logistics in my head for our family, which stresses me out somewhat, and my kids and sometimes my husband are the ones who can get caught off guard when we're suddenly trying to do three things while heading into as many different directions. We're going to use our meeting to talk about what went well, what we can improve on, have the kids pick their punishments, review the schedule for the week and set a positive tone for the coming days. I love the idea of getting together at breakfast - some days, this makes MUCH more sense than trying to pull off a dinner together given different schedules. I love the suggestions to start empowering the kids.I'll update in a few weeks after we've been implementing some of these practices. I'm feeling pretty positive at this point.

I read Bruce Feiler’s The Secrets of Happy Families ahead of the birth of my first child (which is still a month away), and so, to be honest, I’m not in the target audience for the book. Plus, seeing as the large majority of the book concerns a life with kids, I’m far from the most qualified person to assess it. So, I could well be revising my opinion over Feiler’s work as the years go on. Nevertheless, as of now, I found it very interesting, full of ideas that I would consider implementing in the future.The book’s premise seemed to me, once I read the introduction, to be a silly one. The author proposed to look at insights from different careers and fields of study to see how they could improve family life. For instance, how would a professional trained in conflict resolution deal with family arguments? How would a green beret build a sense of “team” in the family? This sounded pretty ridiculous (the team one still didn’t work for me) until I read the first chapter and began to see the specific ideas these people had. I found particularly intriguing the sections on “family branding,” family weekly meetings, and the need for having close relationships with extended family. Many sections of the book have original ideas, and Feiler has done his best to support them with relevant research. I think that almost all families would find some useful and helpful ideas here.My only criticism of the book is that it definitely seemed to trail off at the end. This section largely had to do with entertainment. Some of the advice was just week or obvious (the creators of Farmville suggest playing “20 Questions” on car trips). Even Feiler seemed to think that the idea about making family trips more like an extreme competition (think: Amazing Race) was a little absurd.On the whole, though, this was a quick read with some useful ideas. I would recommend it and expect to revisit it myself in the future.

Wonderful book. The story of your family is such an important hinge for your kids to understand their context in the world.

Bruce Feiler is an inspiration, his books do justice to the great speaker he is. The Secrets of Happy Families is a brilliant insight into how family life can be different, with great and easy to apply principles.

Good to re-visit old and out of date ideas about family life. An interesting read.

sind nette Ideen drin, allerdings muss das Leser-Englisch doch ziemlich gut sein, da der Autor sich öfters in theoretischen Abhandlungen verirrt. Auch kommt öfter der amerikanische Stil des Über-Begeisterten und Hochmotivierten durch, was nicht so mein Fall ist. Aber, wie gesagt, einige Ideen sind auch auf die europäische Familienkonstellation anwendbar ;)

Mais la manière d'atteindre ce bonheur est à chaque fois différente.Ce livre est à lire en couple (chacun son tour) pour ne plus s'arrêter à des disputes stériles. Autour d'une vingtaine d'activités différentes, Bruce Feiler propose les moyens de construire et de développer le bonheur dans votre famille. La plupart des idées sont simples (si simples !). Autour d'exemples et de cas particulier expliquant la mise en place, l'auteur montre la manière de repenser les aspects (qui a dit pénible ?) du quotidien : des repas, aux "discussions", des réunions de familles aux activités.La démarche est bonne est le mot d'ordre est claire : prenez ce qui vous intéresse, car c'est avant tout une boite à outil qui est à votre disposition. Et vous n'avez (presque) plus de raisons de ne pas être une famille heureuse.