As I got older, I noticed something among my friends and several others around me—we began to spend less time with our families. At a point, it began to feel like we didn’t even miss our siblings and parents anymore.
Some of us would go months without talking to family, and it gave me weird vibes, considering we had such strong connections with these same people when we were younger.
Understandably, it’s the course of life. Many things come into our lives as we grow, and it’s common for our pursuit of these things to replace our devotion to family. It could be following a passion, joining new circles, running a business, or anything else.
All these things are important, but so is family bonding, and that’s why there should be a balance between them. You don’t always have to choose between family and other things. You can pursue the money, pleasure, and satisfaction you wish for and still enjoy a lovely connection with your family.
Strengthening your family connection needs more than just a resolution to get it done. It needs some thoughtful actions, too. The list of things you can do to bring and keep your family together despite Earth’s many distractions is endless, and I’ll tell you about several of these family bonding ideas below.
Plan Family Time Together
Discuss with all family members or those interested in staying connected, and plan to spend time together. Family can spend time together over many things, like dinner, games, serious discussions about literally anything, like the financial or emotional state of the family, and more. Agree on what you’ll be doing together and go for it.
When doing this, consider the availability of every person so no one will feel left out. The time you go for should be favorable to every family member. The frequency of these together times is also super important. They shouldn’t be too frequent that they become a burden and shouldn’t be too far apart that they aren’t impactful. I recommend bi-weekly or monthly.
Use Chat Groups
Last year, I woke up to a family group created by my sister, and I saw the thoughtfulness in it. I also saw its potential to keep us connected, and time proved me right. Today, it has become a place where we trade jokes, share pictures, and support each other. Thank you, technology.
You can adopt this for your family, too. Depending on how the vibes flow in your family, you may include only your siblings and parents, or you may make the community bigger by adding other relatives—uncles, nieces, aunties, nephews, etc. In the group, you can check in on others and have fun discussions regardless of how far you are from each other.
Besides that, the group will provide a space to share nostalgic family pictures and memorable family videos and to flaunt meetups between family members. You can occasionally do voice and video calls to enjoy a more intimate experience.
Build Rituals Around Holidays
Several holidays in the year present perfect opportunities for families to celebrate together. Some examples are Christmas, New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving. If your family doesn’t come together during these celebrations, you may miss out on some great family bonding opportunities.
It doesn’t have to be every holiday that you link up, though. Family members should enjoy the freedom to celebrate some holidays with their friends or alone, whichever they prefer, and break the monotony of always celebrating with each other.
You can all discuss and select which holiday will be best to celebrate together and come up with a ritual that is not only fun but encourages you to understand each other better and impact each other’s lives.
On these days, you can gather together to see a movie, have a sleepover, share a meal, exchange gifts, share nostalgic stories about your family, and more. Ensure that activities selected for such get-togethers aren’t just those you prefer but those that most family members like so they can be fun for everyone.
The best thing about holidays for these kinds of meetups between family members is that they are fixed, so everyone who will participate can plan well to attend.
Do Little Things Together
For families that are still living under the same roof, they can start cultivating a healthy connection right from home. By doing things together. Anything. Cooking. Cleanup. Exercise. Anything that can be done together. Anything that can involve the whole family.
I have found many things to be more fun when done with people with whom you share a relationship. When a hand you share a relationship with assists you while you cook, it becomes more than cooking but an experience that can be littered with inside jokes and opportunities to bond. The same goes for doing morning jogs together or cleaning up the lawn.
For families no longer in the same house, you can invite other family members to join you for certain chores or activities like mowing the lawn or setting up for a house party. You also have to be willing to be there for them when they need a hand to make their chores easy and fun.
Have Tech-Break Rules
This is also for families that stay together. Since over-reliance on technology distracts people from having real connections with those physically present around them, a rule that begs for a break from tech devices will be handy for family bonding, and I have the perfect example for that.
Here it comes: Pick a room where family members have to be a few times daily, like the dining room. Do not install or permanently place any distractive tech devices—television, smart speaker, etc.—there, and put a rule against having mobile tech gadgets—phones, tablets, earphones, etc.—there.
With this, everyone has no choice but to interact with humans when it’s time to eat. And they can return to tech if they wish when mealtime is over.
Your tech-break rule doesn’t only have to be about places. It can also be about time. For example, you may decide to say no phones after 9:00 pm. That way, any interactions in the house after that time will be human-to-human. Just be creative and devise your tech break rule or adopt any of the ones I mentioned.
Be Intentional About Checking In
Notice how I did not just say “check in” but added “intentional” to this point? I have two definitions of or contexts for intentional in mind for this point, and here they are:
The first thing I’m asking of you is not only to check in on other family members when you remember to or feel like it but to make it regular and not too long apart. What I’m about to say may sound extreme, but if you have to, you can set monthly reminders to check on family members.
The second thing I’m saying is that your check-ins shouldn’t be shallow. You know that “How are you?” that you shoot absent-mindedly at someone you don’t really want to talk to? Not that. Check on them with deeper questions that allow them to give you a peek into their lives.
Here are some questions you can try:
- “What’s been going on in your school lately?”
- “What kind of help do you need with your anniversary plans?”
- “What can we do for fun this weekend to catch up?
- “Can you share one of your special recipes so I can try it this weekend?”
Over to You
I’ve played my part by providing you with ways to strengthen your family connection. Now, it’s over to you. Will you start working on bringing your family closer right away, or will you procrastinate? I think you know what is best and I believe that’s what you will do.
Before you close this page, can you take a few seconds to share this article with a friend or two? Trust me, someone other than you also needs to read this. And thank you, because I know you will share it.