The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family is the story of Theresa and Jude Cousins. The couple is knee deep in the chaos of managing a family, a household and raising four children. Beyond the rigors of parenting, Theresa and Jude are overwhelmed by volunteer activities, business trips, family trips, soccer games, swim practice, birthday parties, play dates, Girl Scout meetings, client meetings, parent-teacher meetings, back-to-school nights, and in-law visits. As a result, they live in a constant state of hustle, with little free time to relax and communicate with one another. Theresa bears the brunt of the situation, and she has had enough.
After numerous declarations that things must change, Theresa finally has a revelation one day when Jude says, “If my clients ran their companies the way we run this family, they’d be out of business.” Theresa decides to take a different look at her husband’s consulting practice, with her eye on family life. Ultimately, she adapts his methodology for creating healthy organizations to the Cousins family, “the most important organization of all.”
During the story, Theresa struggles to operationalize her theoretical breakthrough, trying to balance theory with application in the real, messy world of family life. She experiences ups and downs along the way, but eventually develops a model that works.
