Children who spend quality time with their parents are less likely to have behavior issues within the family and at school.
Parents today juggle a hundred different roles like cook, maid, and housekeeper to name a few but some parents become so consumed with these roles so much they don’t make time to spend quality time with their children. Maybe Tomorrow: Most Parents Confess They’re Too Busy For Quality Time With Their Kids
We forego spending time as a family due to our schedules being filled with television, video games, children’s after school sports activities and social media. We say we are just too busy but these are excuses because we make time for what is important to us.
What is quality time? Quality time is uninterrupted scheduled time with our children having fun playing games and interacting with one another without the distraction of phone calls, text messages or emails.
Think about when you were a child, what do you remember most? Some of my most favorite memories as a kid are when we would go on a family vacation camping up in Cloverdale, California. I remember being able to swim as much as I wanted, go fishing and hiking and sitting around the campfire at night telling stories.
Take a moment and review the past week, the past month, and the past year and write down how much quality time you spend as a family and call a family meeting and ask your kids how you are doing as a family in this area. Their response may surprise you
As parents, my wife and I made it a priority to take several vacations each year. In January we would sit down and plan how we would spend the 4 weeks of vacation time I acquired at my job. Sometimes it would be camping with our church, a week at our timeshare in Lake Tahoe or a car trip to Arizona and those times I had to spend with my son and his friend were priceless.
Recently I had the privilege to spend 4 nights and 5 days at Disneyland with my two granddaughters, my son and his wife’s family and the look on the face of this 3-year-old was absolutely priceless!
Some other benefits of spending quality time as a family are that our children feel loved and cared for which helps them be more mentally and emotionally healthy.
Five Simple Ways to Spend Quality Time as a Family
- Set aside one night a week to be a game night. Let each member choose an activity each week.
- Watch a movie as a family on Friday or Saturday night and assign each member a task like someone gets drinks for everyone, someone makes the popcorn and talk about the film afterward.
- Once a month take a day trip to a place everyone agrees on.
- Do an art project as a family and display the art round the house.
- Serve others as a family in your community.
These are just some of the ways you can continuously bond as a family and keep the lines of communication open.
Try some of the suggestions above and leave a comment with some of the ways you’ve spent quality time with your family and the impact it had on you and your children.
