If you are still doubting the importance of family time, here are some valuable points to consider.
1. Bonding with Family
Everyone needs to have a sense of belonging, feeling as though they have a safe place that they can trust. Children often join gangs to feel as though they are part of something similar to a family. By having a strong family bond, it’s likely to prevent them from getting involved in dangerous activities and looking for that connection elsewhere.
2. Talk and Listen
We also all need a place where we can talk openly and share our feelings, and that’s what a family is for. Talking to your kids or younger siblings can help prevent them from getting involved in dangerous activities and succumbing to peer pressure.
3. Teaching Your Kids Valuable Lessons
As a parent or older sibling, it’s your responsibility to teach your children and family right from wrong. And if they don’t learn this at home, they will learn it somewhere else, perhaps not in the way you would have liked them to.
4. Show Affection
Affection is shown differently by everyone. For some it means holding hands, others giving hugs, and sometimes it just means doing a nice gesture. Spending time with family gives everyone the chance to express their affection.
In fact, it’s been found that teenagers who are shown affection are more likely to do better in school compared to those that don’t receive this type of family attention.
5. Family Traditions
Family values come from spending time with family. Children copy what they see at home. If a parent is not around, then that’s exactly what they will learn to do when they have their own children. Spending time with family as much as possible can help develop positive family values.
6. Accept Each Other
Family time is crucial in order to learn how to accept each other’s differences, and appreciate each family member for their unique qualities.
7. Share Chores
Sharing chores between family members is a way for children to learn to fend for themselves in a healthy, safe way. It establishes the fact that you are a family, and that you share a common goal that you need to work together in order to reach.
8. Connect with Your Children
It’s been found that when parents get involved in their children’s studies, it helps them get better grades, and increases their chances of graduating, as well as their chances to attend higher education. Even a sibling or cousin helping if the parent isn’t around can also be highly beneficial.
It’s also been found that parental involvement encourages children to have more positive attitudes towards learning. It can be as simple as reading a bedtime story, checking homework or even asking your child how their day was.
9. Building Self-Esteem
Spending time with family helps children gain a greater sense of self-worth. Spending time with family doesn’t have to be costly, what’s most important is just being together.
10. Builds Positive Behaviors
Those who spend more time with their families are found to be less likely to engage in dangerous activities. Those who eat meals with their families tend to have better diets compared to those that don’t, and are also less likely to consume tobacco and alcohol.
11. Encourages Communication
Spending time with family fosters a healthy environment allowing for open communication. Your children need a place where they can feel safe and comfortable to talk about everything.
12. Kids Become Good Friends
Children learn from what they see, and if they are shown the importance of family time, then they are likely to take this example to others parts of their lives. Spending family time together can help make your child a better friend.
13. Create Memories
Spending time with family is a chance to build memories together, and to share their everyday ups and downs.
14. Family Bonding is Healthy
Being around your family members tends to encourage you to eat more nutritious meals, and overall take on a healthy lifestyle since you are sharing home-cooked meals together, rather than eating processed and prepared foods outside.
15. Connecting With Family Reduces Stress
Having the opportunity to express your feelings to your family can help reduce stress and find solutions to your problems.
Ways to Spend More Time with Family.
Now that you’ve understood the incredible importance of family time, the next step is finding creative ways to actually do it!
1. Family night
Consider organizing a fun family night, perhaps a game night or a picnic. There are endless low-cost or free activities you can arrange. What’s most important is that you are together!
2. Vacations
While family vacations can get costly, if you can organize something small for you and your family, it can be an incredible chance to share a new adventure together.
3. Exercise
Have you ever considered working out together as a family? It’s a great way to find motivation and spend quality time together while staying healthy.
4. Reading Activities
Spending family time together doesn’t only have to be good for the soul. It can be for the brain, too! Have a real educational experience together, such as reading books out loud to each other.
5. Arts and Crafts
Arts and crafts are a creative and fun way to spend time with family and bond in a special way. It’s a way for self-expression as well as a chance to work together and help each other out.
6. Help the Community
There’s no better way to teach your children good values and the importance of helping others than actually going out and doing that with them. It’s also an incredible opportunity to spend quality time together that you can all feel good about.
7. Cooking
Cooking together is not only a fun family activity, but also a seriously rewarding one! After working hard together, you can enjoy a delicious meal together.
Steps to Making the Most of the Holidays
With the holiday season is right around the corner, now is the time to start planning and finding ways to make the most of the holidays. You may have many conflicting priorities, so the first step is deciding how you want to allocate your time. From there, you can start to plan fun activities.
Set yourself a budget for spending this holiday time, and be realistic with yourself. Spending quality family time is much more valuable than spending your hard-earned money on extravagant gifts.
Be sure to make self-care a priority too this holiday season, not forgetting about yourself as well.
Source: uopeople.edu