Do you often find yourself or your family letting plans together fall through, or feel the distance growing between your family members? It’s not as uncommon as you may think, with how busy modern lives are and how hard it can be to figure out a common schedule amongst multiple people of different ages and needs. However, if you find a way to make family time a priority you can reap many benefits and bridge that gap between you all. Here are some tips and tricks for how to make family time a priority.
Create Structure
The most important part of making family time happen and become a priority is to structure it. Make bonding time a part of your family’s routine and schedules, set aside time on the weekend for movie or game nights, have family dinners or breakfasts, really anything that can fit around everyone’s schedule. If you make this a structured part of your lives it becomes important and increasingly difficult to miss or fall out of.
Let Them Hold You Accountable
Chances are, you probably don’t like your kids nagging you about plans or wanting to spend time together when you’re busy. But you need this accountability to keep things going well. Talk with your kids about how important family time is to everyone and that they can help you remember and stay on track with it. Let them remind you when you forget, or help to pick what to do and when. It can help spark interest in them and make the time important to everyone.
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Take Trips
Sometimes the best way to rejuvenate yourself and your kids is to take a trip out of the house for a while. You don’t have to go far or do something expensive, maybe just go on a drive and play music or go for a short walk nearby. Fresh air is so beneficial for health and can let everyone have a break from being in the house all the time, and taking a little trip can be great for your whole family to remember the importance of spending some time away together.
Individualized Approach
Even though spending time together as a whole family is important, it’s also incredibly valuable to remember your children and your partner or yourself as individuals. Learn what everyone prefers for family time, and give your kids one-on-one time with you in the routine as well. This also means remember how important some time for yourself can be or things like date nights with your partner. The approach has to include everyone as an individual too.
Learn Together
Getting tired of the same old family nights or activities? What about taking some time to learn something new with your kids, partner, or the whole family? Learning is helpful for all ages and can be a fun way to break up the normal routine. You could watch a documentary, read books, do learning activities, try some science experiments, and much more.
Now that you know some ideas, you can make these work for any schedule and for your specific family. It can be hard at first so remember to have patience and just keep trying. Family time can be a great way to improve relationships and bonding as well as help individuals in your family improve their mental health and communication.