It's Monday night. Our family has just gotten finished with dinner and we are gathering in the family room. It's our night to be together. This has been the scene in our home for the past 20 years. Now that our kids are grown we do not do this weekly like we used to, but while they were growing up we were religious about it. Find a night, any night that works for your family and make it a family night.
This was something that we always looked forward to. One night a week, set aside for each other. No work. No friends. No activities. We just knew that everything had to be put on hold for a short while on our night. It didn't really matter what we did so long as it was together. Why do I think this is so important?
1. Life Gets Busy! When your kids are little it feels like every day is family day. Why do I have to dedicate one day a week for a family night when we spend so much time together as it is? Because, as your kids get older they get busier. MUCH busier. It gets harder and harder to correlate schedules to be together. If you start out with a scheduled time then that just becomes habit and it is never questioned as they get older. They just make sure to keep that slot open.
2. It Creates A Support System. We have had some pretty intense discussions on our family nights as our kids have gotten older and had to face bigger problems. Because we have sat around have talked about everything under the sun as a family, and worked out a lot of issues together, it has created a closeness between us that cannot be broken. Each of us knows that we can talk to anyone in the family, at any time, about anything. It is very comforting to now that you have that support system at all times.
3. You Get To Know Each Other. If you let each person in the family switch off on the planning of what you do you really get to know each other better and focus on each others interests. Even within a tight knit family there are a lot of different personalities. What a great way to really get to know each other.
4. It Creates A Constant In a Crazy World. No matter what your week looks like with schedules, meetings, homework and obligations you know you will have at least a few hours a week to just slow down. Time to just relax and focus on each other and put everything else aside for a few glorious moments.
5. It Puts Focus On What's Really Important. One of the most popular posts on Family Strong to date is "The Man Cave: Calling Grandpa Out". Aaron said it perfect in that post. "I think a real man of action and purpose is one that budgets his time well enough that the urgent stuff never tramples over the important stuff." Your family IS the important stuff. It's important to show your kids that they are more important than all the rest of it.
I challenge you to pick a night that works for your family and dedicate it to be your family night. The one night a week that everyone keeps clear so that you can spend time together. It is SO worth it, I promise! I will be spending a big portion of my posts this year on things to do for family night. Activities that we had fun with, game reviews of some of our favorites and even some object lessons that we came up with to drive a point home where needed.
I am very passionate about the importance of doing this and I want to give you the tools you need to get started. The fist step: pick a night and then stick with it.
I like this advice. This is something we need to commit to working on. I can tell this has made your family better for doing it.
ReplyDeleteyour kids are never too young to start the habit, even if it's just playing with them in their rooms with their toys, but you are doing it as a family. That's what's important, just starting the habit and being together.
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