In not so many words, this is often what both parents and kids will tell me in my office. And it's not just in the office that I hear it. Sometimes I even here these words coming out of my mouth, or out of the mouths of my own kids or wife!
It's so easy to get stuck in our routines. After all, it's what we're used to! We never plan to devote all our time to our work and school routines; it just seems to happen with time.
"If we say family time is important, but never plan for it and it falls off busy individual or parent schedules, then, clearly everything else we’re doing is more important. Really? Most people would agree that family is more important to them than their jobs or careers – it’s just not always easy to give it the priority it deserves."
Here are some practical tips for creating your own family fun routines:
1. Ask for ideas! Ask each person in your family to describe their favorite family time, what family means to them at its best, and what activities make them feel most connected and part of their family. One person might say that they enjoy eating meals together. Another person might say that they most enjoy going out for a family fun activity once a month.
2. Create New Family Fun Activities: Together!
- Ask each family member to describe their 3 favorite family fun activities. Keep asking, "What's the best about that?" until you can figure out the essence of why they like that activity.
- Brainstorm ideas that for a new family fun activity that will create the essential ingredient of what makes family fun, well....Fun! After generating some ideas, go back and pick out some activities that are most affordable and most fun to do.
- Make sure that you pencil an activity into your schedule, just like any other important appointment.
This article is paraphrased from Denise Quinlan's article at Positive Psychology News Daily.