Where it all began

Hi everyone and welcome to the Family Room Blogspot.

Get yourself a cuppa, sit back, relax and enjoy your time with us. Everything on this site has been designed with you in mind. Our hope is that you will leave us inspired, a little more informed and enriched and that you will catch the vision of carving out a great future for you and your family.

How the Family Room came about …

Two year’s ago my friend Michaela Grul and I sat in my living room and chatted about ‘what is a great family.’ And as we talked, we discovered that although we came from vastly different backgrounds; me from rural Canada and Michaela from the suburbs of Sydney; what we valued most about our families was the same. Our love for tradition and the strength that it brought, our parents discipline (although hard at times) so perfect in every way, our desire to build a home not a house and a haven for all who walk across the threshold – there’s so much more but I’ll leave some for you to discover as we begin to connect through this site…..

Inspired by our upbringing and the amazing example set for us, we had many conversations on how to build great families of our own and then how we could share our learning’s with others: We decided that we’d done enough talking it was time to put legs on our dreams and thus THEFAMILYROOM was birthed.

We then did what every girl with a dream does, we shared it with others. Belinda, Sam, Nicky, Annie and Catherine, all busy wives, mothers and girls who understood the dream and importance of committing to this journey - the journey of helping families build their futures….together, devoted to one another.

Today we operate THEFAMILYROOM we are all passionate about the dream, we are committed to the vision of seeing extraordinary families built, relationships established and our communities strengthened. We busy wives; mothers, sisters and friends and our organization is taking the community by storm. Around Sydney we are seeing families aspiring to THEFAMILYROOM principles. Further a field in countries like Canada and Fiji new Chapters of THEFAMILYROOM are being discussed.

We are so proud of what we have achieved - a team of dedicated women, a fantastic core group of people attending our regular meetings, a very successful launch night and an entertaining and informative BLOG spot. But this is only the beginning...

Ultimately our aim is to reach families all over the world through our network of events, newsletters, books and TV programs. The road ahead for us will get more and more exciting as these incredible passionate girls put a stake in the ground for FAMILY.

As the story unfolds, we’ll continue to update you chapter by chapter. We’re having lots of fun, putting smiles on faces and endeavoring to help families like yours carve out amazing futures.

We love you and believe in you and hope that you will bookmark us as one of your ‘favorites’ on your computer. We will be updating the site daily to provide you with more essential tools and tips that will enable you to make a difference in your family immediately.

Susan xoxo











The Family Room is a powerful and much needed response to the growing issues families are facing as the demands of everyday life increase.

Strong families can build strong communities. Studies in Australia and overseas have highlighted the importance of focusing on the question, 'What makes a family strong?' When these strengths are identified and developed, they can become the foundation for continued growth and positive change in a family and beyond.

The Family Room is a team of young mums who are committed to building extraordinary families, developing strong relationships, and strengthening the communities they live in.

©The Family Room 2006