5 Tips to Quality Family Time

Dessert Night, and Other Fun Ideas to Stay Connected

With our fast-paced world of business trips, PTA meetings, soccer practice, and ballet recitals when do we have quality family time? When was the last time your whole family actually had dinner at the same table at the same time? It is becoming increasingly harder to stay connected to our family unit. Here are some tips to maintain the closeness that seems evasive as your kids get more and more involved in extra-curricular activities. Planning a family night takes effort, but the payoff is well worth the time.

· EAT BREAKFAST TOGETHER ONE MORNING A WEEK. Go all out! Make bacon, eggs, pancakes, biscuits, sausage, the whole shebang! You can make dinner light that night, and consider this the big meal of the day. Plan it for a day that is the hardest to all have dinner together. Determine who has to be out of the house first that morning and back up breakfast to include everyone. The first early morning may be rough, but push through the groans and complaints. It will pay dividends, and the fussing won’t last long. Make it clear that having quality family time together is worth the effort. It places a strong value on time together, and in itself is a lesson to the whole family, “time together matters!”.

· PLAN A DESSERT NIGHT. Have ice cream sundaes one night and pie another, etc. Put it on the calendar for every other week. Plan for it when you go to the grocery store so that you have everything you need. Let each member of the family choose a dessert for one of the nights and tape the dessert menu and dates to the fridge. It serves as a reminder of the time together and gives everyone something to look forward to. Plan it for late in the evening, or just before bed so that everyone is home from their evening activities.

· GO TO CHURCH TOGETHER. Sunday mornings are generally easy on everyone’s schedule. The only sacrifice might be getting up before noon. But there are plenty of services that don’t start until 11 am and only last an hour. Statistics show that families that attend church together regularly are closer. The old adage is “They that pray together, stay together.”