How to Spend More Time Together as a Family

Spending time together as a family is crucial, but with the hectic nature of everyday life, it can often be completely overlooked due to our other responsibilities and duties. As humans, we crave interaction from those who we are closest to and when we don’t get it, it can often feel as though a part of our life is missing. Studies have shown that children in particular, desperately crave attention as part of their social development and with this in mind, you should aim to maximize your time spent together as a family whenever possible. If you’re wondering how you can integrate this into your daily routine, we have put together this blog to give you some ideas on how you can spend more time together as a family.

1. Eat together

Most households don’t have a set dinner-time routine with family members sitting around the table at the same time—either because one parent is at work or the other decides to eat in another room, but making the effort to dine together each evening has a number of benefits, and will help you to increase your family time together around your other commitments. This is your opportunity to talk about the day and listen to any worries that spring up so you can solve them immediately and provide wise words of encouragement.

Weekends spent indoors can be tedious, especially on wet and windy days when there isn’t much to do, however, relaxing summerhouses are the perfect way to spend time together as a family and simply have fun. You can convert your summerhouse in many ways—including the likes of a games room or even a chill-out zone for reading. When you don’t get much family time together, making the pledge to ditch phones and all other forms of technology will allow you to simply connect with each other with no distractions.

Although you may be pushed for time after work, you should try and encourage the children to make dinner with you a couple of times per week. While it may take longer to prepare and potentially become a little chaotic, it’s the perfect way for you to spend quality time with your children and even teach them a vital skill that they’ll need through to adulthood. Browsing easy recipes that both you and your child can follow would be a great starting point.

When time as a family is a rare occurrence, making the effort to exercise together is one way that you can build on those bonds. There are plenty of activities to choose from depending on your interests; from fishing, to trekking, to even going on runs together. It is scientifically advised that every single person has at least 30 minutes of exercise per day to maintain good health and wellbeing, therefore, this is a fundamental part of your day (whether it be in the morning or after work) that could be spent with your spouse, partner, or children.