68 Brett Rustand on the family as a team and forming lasting memories

“We have a critical role as parents to create memories for children, and put them in situations and environments where they’re creating memorable experiences.” Brett Rustand on DADicated Brett Rustand is a 45-year-old military veteran and father of five who lives in Tuscon, Arizona. He and his wife both come from large families and have put a lot of effort into melding their individual experiences into their own unified family culture. Brett’s military career completely changed direction upon the birth of his first son in Korea. He decided that, from that moment on, he would dedicate every day of his life to raising his children, and currently works in an industry helping veterans to get jobs. In this session, we discuss working as a team within your family and our role as parents in deliberately creating situations that will form lasting memories for our children. He draws insightful parallels between functioning as a military unit and as a family and emphasizes the importance of showing vulnerability and giving children space to reconcile their own emotions. The most powerful takeaways for me as a dad were: - When children see themselves as part of a team with their own responsibilities, it helps them formulate their own identity and feel comfortable within their individual roles as part of a coordinated family unit. - Constant communication routines are essential in maintaining strong and functional relationships both between spouses and as a family. - It’s so easy to forget to take a step back and enjoy how wonderful an experience it is to help a little person develop and become a full-fledged human being. Realizing this and taking the time to do so is essential for our own perspective and parenting experience. Thanks for listening, I hope you’ll enjoy this session! GUEST SOCIAL MEDIA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-rustand-0b17977/ Website:  https://crestins.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abitrusty/ Philipp Hartmann (host): Web: www.philipp-hartmann.de LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipphartmann2 Dadicated: https://www.dadicated.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beingdad_official/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/philipphartmann