The best thing that has come out of this recession is the fact that more people are having to adjust to living within their means, therefore are spending more time with their families.
 Families are cooking and having at home dinners together.
 They are going to their children's sporting events together as a family and actually enjoying a night out at the ballpark.
 Families are having to learn to depend on family again.
  When the US was at it's peak, we had parents working up to 90 hours a week to get ahead.
 In order to keep up with the Joneses, adults were working more hours for the next big promotion.
 Children received anything they wanted because the parents could afford to give them everything they did not have.
 Now everyone has had to cut back to more realistic purchasing, simply because hours have been cut.
 Pay has decreased, and some people have simply lost their jobs.
  Children have even had to cut back on the amount of activities they are involved in because there just isn't money anymore to pay the fees.
 Is it such a bad thing that children learn to entertain themselves at a playground? Or be out in the evenings with friends playing games? When time is less structured, creativity begins to flow.
   More time is spent with families and familial connections grow.
  Our families have needed this recession for a long time now.
 We have not only realized that we have been living outside of our means, we have had to learn to rely on family, friends, and even God to take care of our needs.
 We have had to learn to depend on each other again.
 We have had to be able to be willing to ask for help and to receive that help graciously when we've needed it.
 We have had to become family again.
In a nation that was built on the backs of strong families, let us not go back to the way we were just a few short years ago, but let us strive to be strong again.