Family: Its About Time
01/05/2009
After a particularly bad weekend last year when I threatened to toss the TV out the window, my husband and I sat down to reclaim our family. Sunday morning is now ours. We pad around in PJ’s, cook a big breakfast—together—sit by the fire, and read. My husband sometimes reads a book out loud to the family (we just finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn). We don’t answer the phone or check e-mail. After church, we go back to regular life, but I cherish those mornings more than any trip we’ve ever taken.
Here are other fun ways to create more together time:
• Develop a family project and work on it once a week. Have a family fitness challenge or plan a garden for spring, starting plants from seeds.
• Designate one night as “family night,” and let the kids take turns choosing what to do. My sister does this and they’ve had Matchbox car races and built a family time capsule they buried in the back yard.
• Get out the paper and crayons and have each family member create a self-portrait, or draw something they love. We did this once on small pieces of paper that fit snuggly into the bottoms of acrylic coasters found at a craft store. They’re now daily reminders of some of our family’s favorite things.
• Start “Sports Sundays.” Pick a basketball or hockey team you want to root for, make signs, pop some popcorn and watch the game together. Whoever’s team wins gets an hour of pampering from the family.
• Walk or ride bikes to a fun lunch spot every Saturday.
• Organize regular snow games on your block. Play wall ball; divide kids and parents into two teams, and have each one build a snow wall. Then throw snowballs over the walls for a point each.
• Take Sunday walks with a digital camera or pair of binoculars. Draw pictures of what you saw when you get home.
Whatever you do, just do it together. As you know, time goes so quickly. Staking out a few hours each week for your family is the best investment you will ever make.