Game Time

Score points with your kids on family fun night

by Rosemary O’Brien


Today’s families live hectic lives. With school activities, sports team involvement and just the day-to-day things that need to be done, we may feel we hardly see our families, let alone have fun with them.

Start a Family Fun Night
Parents and child professionals already know that kids need to have fun, but so do their parents. The whole family benefits from designating a time for fun each week, and then sticking to the plan.

“Having something regularly scheduled, like a family fun night, gives everyone something to look forward to,” said Kathy Young, developer of Healthy Girls, a program that teaches girls about nutrition and healthy living.

Young and her co-developers have seen what a difference these scheduled nights have made. These scheduled nights provide a golden opportunity for parents to talk to their children in more detail about what is happening in their children’s lives as well as letting the kids in on what is going on in their own. It’s a win-win situation.

“One of the biggest benefits to the kids,” according to Young, “is seeing their parents having fun – often for the first time in a long time – and it’s having it be with them.”

Margaret Pevec is co-author of “What Kids Really Want to Ask: Using Movies to Start Meaningful Conversations.” She said creating an “askable” environment, one in which teens can ask any question and know they will not be judged, ridiculed, or shut down in any way, is about the healthiest endeavor a parent can pursue. Sadly, only 25 percent of kids say they can ask their parents anything according to Pevec.

What is a Family Fun Night?
“It can be any family ritual,” said Debbie Mandel, author of several family self-help books. “Family rituals like game night, movie night, themed-dinner nights and family book club, create a bond of communication, improve academic performance and increase self-confidence.” She said children are eager for their parents’ attention. The offshoot of having fun with your children is that parents relearn how to have fun again, release their inner child and by doing so, release stress.

Helping Military Families Bridge the Gap
Tina Tessina, author of “The Commuter Marriage,” explained that family fun nights can help military families separated by deployment cope with the distance between them.

“I not only recommend that families have game nights and spend time together,” Tessina said, “but I also recommend that families who are separated by deployment use the great new technology to help with homework at a distance, to play games and to share events and milestones over the distance.”

“Family fun night was one of the best things we ever did,” said Annie Stanfield-Hagert, a social worker in private practice whose children are now adults. “It changed over their years as the kids’ social and psychological needs changed.”

Karla Eidson, a reading education lecturer at Texas A&M University, agreed.

“Family night is a precious and sacred tradition around our house and always has been,” Eidson said. “It has been a consistent thread that was incredibly healthy for my children to maintain consistency and tradition even when our family changed due to divorce.”

In this busy world, family time is more important than ever. Why not get the family together, have a meal, then drag out the board games or deck of cards? You might find yourself talking to your kids and learning more about their daily thoughts and struggles. As an added benefit, you might just have a little fun. Either way, family fun night is time well spent with those most important to us.

Family Fun Night Activities

• Play a board game: Think Scrabble or Monopoly. Make sure it is age-appropriate for all of the children.
• Have a movie night: Drag out all of the pillows in the house and pile up in front of the TV. Make popcorn, put in a DVD and it’s instant movie night.
• Cook a meal together: There are several cookbooks geared toward helping children learn how to cook. Even popping in a frozen entrée makes little kids feel as if they are helping and you can use this time to talk to them one-on-one.
• Take a drive: Get everyone in the car and drive along the shoreline, into the countryside or just to get an ice cream in another town.