Quality Family Time: How Best to Have Fun and Good Conversation

Hello everyone! I would like to apologize for being MIA last week, as literally my entire household fell sick with pneumonia or a respiratory infection. Unfortunately for where we live, it's normal this time of year; on top of it the area has had a massive respiratory infection outbreak of four or five different viruses. 😬 Now, onto today's topic!

Technology has sky rocketed since many of us were kids. When I was the same age as my kids, the newest thing out there was the OG PlayStation, and the Sega Genesis. The most popular phone was the Nokia brick phone because you could play Snake on it. I think about how far we have come with technology and I find it both a blessing and a curse; it's great for communication and staying in touch, but it also hinders what to do when it comes to quality family time. Notice how I say quality before family time.

Playing video games and sitting down to stream TV Shows for hours has become such a common place for family time, but is it really quality time? Many people will argue that if you are all in the same room and doing the same thing, it's family time. I personally feel the difference between "family time" and "quality family time" is what you are doing.

Family time is supposed to be relaxing and stress free time; a movie night is great for that. Quality family time is about de-stressing, but also having open communication and fun. I used to consider dinner to be quality family time. My parents and I used to sit around the table and discuss our days, and sometimes they got heated when we brought to the table problems that were going on in family. However, it was a great form of open communication where we could express our feelings.

Some people may not have a table to gather around and do that, or they recognize that sometimes that would lead to more problems than not. That's okay! Maybe just a game night. Put away the electronics, and pull out a good old-fashioned board game. I do game nights with my children, their favourite game is the Game of Life; I'm hoping to change that come Christmas with some more board games for them to enjoy. We laugh, we poke fun at each other, and sometimes it even loosens my kids up to feel brave enough to discuss things that are happening at school that they were nervous to discuss. Right there, that turns family time into quality family time in my eyes.

You don't have to go out to dinner often, but every once in a while can be good. It gives you a change of scenery for dinner, and can sometimes make you more comfortable to talk about things. Restaurants can make for some great neutral ground.

Summer time? Pack a backpack or basket and find a great spot at a local park for a picnic! You can relax in the outdoors, kids can run around and get all their energy out, and watch the stars if you want.

Another fun idea if you want to stay at home: channel your inner child! This year for my youngest's birthday, we made a bunch of food from the Disney Parks cookbook and built blanket forts. Blanket forts! I hadn't done that since I was a teen, right alongside backyard camping.

Quality family time is all about bonding. Bonding with your kids doesn't stop when they are no longer considered toddlers, it goes throughout their whole lives. So, take a night to nix everything that's considered electric. Have some good old-fashioned bonding time. Drag the kids away from their videos games. They may protest at first, but they'll be having fun by the end.