Interview with Scott Gale, author of "Your Family Constitution"

Scott Gale is an author and instructor at University of California Irvine. His passion is helping families communicate and re-connect in spite of today’s hectic lifestyle and increased demands. Scott’s new book, “Your Family Constitution: A Modern Approach to Family Values and Household Structure,” inspires readers to increase togetherness and progressively improve by leveraging clarity, consistency and commitment.

For more information on his book or to learn how to create your customized Family Constitution visit: http://www.yourfamilyconstitution.com/ or e-mail: http://mailto:sgale@yourfamilyconstitution.com .

What do you feel sets this book apart from others in the same genre?

Most parenting books fall into one of two categories: those written to educate and those written to entertain. The educational books dispense sensible theories, but they rarely communicate how parents can apply the advice to their specific family needs. These books often completely ignore the vital importance of introspection observation during the problem-solving process. The books written to entertain provide comfort and laughs, but inevitably the "how-to" message gets lost in the stories.

Your Family Constitution

If I were stuck on an island, I’d bring the book Aztec (Jennings) for two reasons. First, it is more than a thousand pages, so if I decided to read it more than once, I may have forgotten some of the story details and can enjoy it again. More importantly, it describes universal human challenges and needs through a very intricate story. Since I’d likely be living a fairly isolated life, I’d want something to identify with.

If you could go back and change one day, what would it be?

If I could change one day, it would probably be the day I proposed to my wife. I was very nervous and not very creative, so I simply passed the ring across the table over dessert at a nice restaurant, and then pulled it back when the waitress came. I never got down on one knee or used my creativity to provide the spectacular proposal that, in hindsight, I would have liked to.

That may sound like a cop-out answer, but I truly believe that adversity teaches life’s greatest lessons. So, I wouldn’t change the painful days...I’d just improve on my lackluster marriage proposal.

Are you a different person than you were five years ago?

I feel like a completely different person from five years ago. At that point, my time was spent based on corporate needs. I didn’t even coach baseball then, as I was afraid that my boss wouldn’t approve of me leaving early a couple of afternoons a week.

Since then, I re-assessed my approach to life and now spend my time in accordance with my greatest priorities, with family being at the top of the list. This doesn’t mean that I work less vigorously on my profession. Instead, I just organize myself better and take advantage of my flexible schedule to be there for all the prized moments with my kids. The funny thing is that doing things like coaching inevitably make me better at what I do professionally, as I am more relaxed and I am a better manager for my time with the kids.

What is your favorite pastime?

I have two favorites. The first, as you might guess, is coaching baseball. I love being on the diamond and working with the kids. I still enjoy the thrill of the games, but watching the kids develop their skills is priceless.

My other favorite activity is surf-kayaking. It is an outstanding stress-reliever. I can do it by myself or with my best buddy. Either way, I return home completely revitalized.

Is there anything else that you would like to share?

Yes. The process of building structure around your values takes time and effort. There simply are no sustainable "quick fixes" when it comes to family. Children are such a blessing, it is worth the effort to do it right.

Your Family Constitution Helps Busy Parents to Create Manageable Family StructureJust in time… a formerly stressed-out dad’s perspective provides a common-sense playbook to reach family harmony. As today’s parents cope with scores of competing obligations and responsibilities, raising kids with good core values is an extreme challenge. Combine this perpetual struggle with the effects of technological distractions, societal lack of discipline, and failures to communicate, and it is not hard to understand why so many parents throw up their hands in defeat and accept mere survival. Author Scott Gale refused to settle for chaos. Instead, he designed a powerful tool that allowed him to alleviate family challenges through the thoughtful application of clarity, consistency and commitment (the “3Cs”). Your Family Constitution tells his story and provides a step-by-step process that parents can follow to balance schedules and produce time they never before had, improve family communication, relieve pent-up frustration, and wrap healthy boundaries around core values; applying rewards, consequences and accountability standards to maintain them. A stressed-out parent downloaded the first chapter and replied, “You are easy to read, easy to understand and easy to identify with. It seems that intentional parenting has gotten lost, and you've provided a blueprint for creating a family with positive family values, ideals and rules to live and grow by. So, thanks for your courage to detail your own experience and offer personal insights for the benefit of frustrated, busy and untrained parents.”