Keeping Your Family Together

Keeping your family together is not as easy as it was a century ago. Helping keep your family close takes effort from all family members. Here are three simple strategies that can be the glue that holds your family together.

Family Game Night
Pick one night a week to denote as "family game night". This should be a time when ALL members of the family can be present. Spend one or more hours playing board games. This time will be something that your children will remember into adulthood. Take turns picking out games. One week it is parent's pick, and the following week, the children get to each pick a game to play. I highly recommend Cranium games. Two great ones for young children are "Hullabaloo" and "Cariboo". Two other great games for those with older children are "Whoonu" and "The Family Fun Game", both of which are specially tailored to boost family closeness. Other great games include the classics, such as "Monopoly", "Scrabble", and "Scattergories".

Family Dinner Table
As often as possible, everyone should eat together as a family. Turn off the television and music, sit at a table and enjoy the meal as well as the conversation. Words tend to flow freely in this setting, and it serves as a great time for the family to keep up on what is going on in every family member's life. Ideally, this should occur every night. If one or more members of the family cannot be there for dinner, the remaining members should still eat together.

One-on-One Time
One-on-one time is important in two different ways. First, each parent should make sure that they spend some one-on-one time together with each of their children every week. This can be a simple as a drive to school or a ballgame, or a story before bed. This time can also occasionally be as elaborate as a trip for ice cream, or even an overnight camping adventure. The second dimension of one-on-one time is between husband and wife. This is the bond that made the family and it is the most important bond to keep the family healthy and happy. Parents should make sure that they get some one-on-one time with their partners, whether it is a nightcap after the children go to bed or a weekly date night.

I sincerely hope that your family can find time in their busy schedules to implement these three strategies. May your family bond grow stronger than ever before and continue forever.