"Investing in family is more worthwhile than anything else."It is not enough to want to accompany in order to know how to accompany familiesMª Pilar Lacorte: "We can all, in some way, be families that accompany other families".During this year "Amoris Laetitia FamilyThe "Family Love" campaign, which concludes on June 26, 2022, we have seen various apostolic initiatives aimed at highlighting the beauty and joy of family love.
One that began shortly before, immersed in the pandemic during the summer of 2020, but that took a new impetus in this Year dedicated to the family, has been "La Escuela de Familia" in and from the Island of Puerto Rico.
About five of us couples got together as "brainstorming"but with three clear objectives: to help in the formation of other marriages -among the couple and with their children-; to highlight the beauty of the family; and to provide the opportunity to share with other couples ("networking" and/or "accompaniment").
International speakers
We decided to establish a minimum structure based on a monthly keynote conference with a prestigious speaker who would virtually provide topics of interest to families, which materialized with the participation of international speakers such as Catherine L'Ecuyer on ".Educating in attention" and on "The attachment bond"; Pablo Zubieta on "Professional Happiness"; Joan-Enric Puig on "How to manage stress in the family environment"; Carmen Corominas on "Educating in values"and Isabel Rojas Estapé on "Women today"as well as speakers from Puerto Rico such as Carlos Morell and his wife Magaly on ".Connect and communicate with your teenager"; Patrick Haggarty and wife Emma on "Sex Education vs Love Education. Educating in affectivity".and Rafael Martinez and his wife Miriam on ".The son who transformed lives: from suffering to the meaning of life".
A common denominator among all the topics was the family, highlighting positive values and providing practical solutions to the difficulties that always exist.
Better yet, a common denominator among the speakers and participants was, first of all, the rediscovery of the importance of training for families: we study to be engineers, doctors, lawyers, administrators, architects... How can we not be better trained to be good husbands and fathers?
And then, to value the importance of knowing that you are accompanied by other families who share the same values and from whose experiences you can nurture your own family. This second point was further strengthened during this last year when we decided, with the help of the reduction of social distancing, to carry out the activities in person.
Ricardo Pou and his wife Yazmín opened the doors of their home to welcome a very young Senator who has earned the respect of the people of Puerto Rico for her defense of the family, the Hon. Joanne Rodriguez Veve, who did not come as a politician but as a family trainer. The hosts prepared their home with great enthusiasm and welcomed the fifty or so attendees who, at the end of the luncheon, listened to the guest speak about family issues that are being debated in the government and the role that each one can assume.
At the request of another couple, Ricardo Negrón and his wife Sandra, who were as enthusiastic as everyone else about the activity mentioned above, we had in their apartment the next activity with Jerry Ramirez on ".Optimal Work"how to get the most out of every hour.
Following our invitation, he applied for the first time this work-study concept to the family, with many practical examples. René Franceschini and his wife, Brenda, were the next hosts in their home.
We had the guest psychiatrist Dr. José Manuel Pou talking to us about ".Parenting in times of pandemic". This leisurely octogenarian speaker held the attention of more than two dozen couples who listened to him in admiration for the wisdom of his words and the appropriate advice he gave us.
He emphasized that parenting is about positively helping our children to have tools so that they can overcome life's difficulties themselves. He warned us that above and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic was the "family pandemic"We must know and treat our children better, always highlighting the beauty of the family.
Technology and family
This same psychiatrist wanted to organize the following face-to-face conference with two psychiatrist students of his own, who spoke to us about "Benefits and risks of the use of digital technology in young people.". At the end of the conference, the couples who attended not only asked questions but above all shared experiences with their children that enriched us all.
For example, after Julio Lugo explained that he had asked his 12-year-old son for advice on how to promote some paintings through Facebook, to which that son exclaimed that this is already old-fashioned, that he should do it through Instagram or another platform, Antonio Ocasio and Annette explained that they also had a similar experience, but that they took advantage of the circumstance to have a meeting with their children in which after listening to the knowledge and recommendations that they gave with the technology, the mother ended up taking them to the technological washing machine and explaining how from now on each one would wash their own clothes with this technology.
In each of these activities we had a dinner before or after the conference, so that the couples who attended had the opportunity to share calmly in person, something that we value more after the social isolation and that strengthens the bonds between all.
