Key Pointers

  • Spending time with family unit is important to strengthen the bonding betwixt family members.
  • Quality family times lessens the generation gap betwixt parents and children.
  • You may spend a few hours every 24-hour interval with your children by involving in their schoolhouse projects or eating together.

Spending time with family tin can never be a luxury but a necessity. As Barbara Bush rightly said, "At the finish of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more than test, non winning one more verdict, or not closing 1 more bargain. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, a parent." According to inquiry, time spent with family plays an important role in our developmental process. Information technology is a driving force backside a healthy relationship between wife and husband and parents and children (1). This mail service tells you lot about family unit time, including why information technology is so important, how much time you should spend, and different means to spend time with your family.

Why Yous Should Spend Time With Your Family

You need to spend fourth dimension with your spouse and children to strengthen the relationships. In fact, research shows that the higher the frequency of shared time, the better the marital stability and happiness (2). Moreover, your kids will learn to respect your sacrifices, show amore towards each other and abound up into healthy individuals.

Here we tell you how family bonding can aid the couple, the parents and children.

Importance Of Family Fourth dimension For Couples

Partners are similar the roots of the family tree. They demand to support and nourish the tree so that it stays house, grows and blossoms. This is possible only when they have a stiff and loving relationship betwixt them. Here is how it helps.

  1. Be there for each other: The essence of family is to be in that location for each other. For example, if you are facing a tough time at work, sharing it with your partner can be a big relief. This volition create a sense of security and belongingness.
  1. Appreciate each other: The beauty of a family is that it has a mix of people with different personalities, and but when you spend time with them volition yous know how unique each one is. It will as well help in developing tolerance towards each other's shortcomings.
  1. Create a loving environment: When there is harmony between the couple, it will resonate in the family. When you and your partner beloved and care for each other, the kids will besides develop such positive feelings.
  1. Strengthen the marital bond: Family unit fourth dimension can likewise assistance in securing your marriage. When the partners spend fourth dimension together, they volition begin to learn well-nigh each other's emotional well being and create a comfortable environment for each other. All this will assist yous grow into a strong couple.
  1. Reduces stress: Piece of work-life balance, family responsibilities, etc., can be stressful. Nevertheless, spending time with your family unit acts as a stress-buster. Having a support organisation to hash out i's stress and issues substantially reduces the pressure. Studies show that high-quality social support decreases posttraumatic stress disorders, and reduces medical morbidity and mortality (3).

Importance of Family Time For Children

  1. Keeps the family together: Kids need to feel safe and secure at home. Spending time with them volition brand them realize that you will e'er be at that place for them. For case, if your child is existence bullied at school, they might open up to you lot if you sit with them every day, ask them near their day, talk to them and brand them feel comfortable. But if yous do not give them your fourth dimension, they would never know that they are able to come to you lot in times of problem.
  1. Lessens the generation gap: "You will never empathise," is what we often hear a teenager say. Children and their parents might drift apart because of the generation gap. Spending quality time will subtract this gap and besides create a friendly infinite, where the children can talk without hesitation, and the parents listen without being judgmental.
  1. Teaches values of life: You, as a parent, might have learned valuable lessons through various events in life. Family unit time is the best time to discuss such incidents and teach your kids nearly virtues like honesty, integrity, and social responsibility. This would make them know what is right and wrong. The next time when they face an ethical dilemma, they will know what to do.
  1. Gives an opportunity to bear witness affection and appreciation: Whether it is getting their math answer right or learning their first music lesson, children await appreciation from parents for even the tiniest of achievements. And there is no better fourth dimension than the family time to inquire nearly their day and tell them how proud you are.
  1. Builds cocky-esteem: When children feel valued at domicile, they are likely to be confident and approachable. Such kids will be able to brand friends easily, assistance others and develop a positive attitude towards life.
  1. Helps stay away from bad habits: Children are exposed to the practiced and the bad in society. What makes the departure is which way they cull to become. According to a study conducted by the U.s.a. National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, teenagers whose parents know zippo of their lives are more likely to have used marijuana and alcohol than other children (4).

The benefits you reap past spending time with your family are too expert to be ignored. Just does that hateful that you take to spend hours together with them, or just make a casual ten-minute breakfast run across and get done with it?

How Much Time Should Y'all Spend With Your Family?

You may spend 45 minutes to i hour daily and iv to 5 hours during the weekends. It depends on your convenience and the family's schedules. You would not want to disturb their bedtime or learning time and similarly, you cannot afford to ignore your work to spend unending time with the family unit.

But brand sure you are not spending the time but for the sake of it. When y'all say family time, information technology must strictly be betwixt you and your family unit – no part work, Telly or smartphones in between. And so, should you lot just proceed talking all the time or can you practise something else together?

How To Spend Time With Your Family?

Y'all do not e'er need to go to Disneyland or get together only on holidays to have quality family time. While annual vacations are enjoyable, at that place are other constructive means to spend time quality with your family. We have listed the virtually basic and important ways to spend time with your family:

  1. Do school projects together: Schoolhouse DIY projects, such as completing a scientific discipline projection or participating in a baking class, are some of the best means to spend time with your kids. These projects will not only aid them develop skills but also teach them how to work equally a squad. It gives an first-class opportunity for you to encourage your children to notice their passion and pursue it.
  1. Eat together: If both you and your partner are working and are on the run throughout the day, and so dinners are the all-time place to spend time together. You can enjoy a delicious meal while sharing the twenty-four hour period's experiences and laughter together. If you take children, and so eating together will ensure they are having nutritious nutrient, and learning some healthy eating habits and food choices (5).
  1. Celebrate special occasions together: Arrive a point to spend special days such every bit anniversaries, birthdays, etc., together. This will not only double the happiness but besides bring the family unit closer. You can besides play some family games to have fun. Such occasions tin can likewise exist an alibi to meet and greet the extended family unit, which will requite your kids a gamble to know them.
  1. Inculcate assistance and worship: Visit a identify of worship together, teach the importance of prayer and innovate your kids to the positive free energy of prayer. Alternatively, you can also visit a local animal shelter or a nursing dwelling and spend time there. Activities like these volition aid your kids to retrieve and feel for others. They will also larn to value and show gratitude for the privileges they have.
  1. Exist a function of your teenager's world: Teenage years can be a tricky. Even though parents were once teenagers, friction is quite mutual. Just it is important to maintain the rapport with them. You may participate in activities that interest them, such as a basketball game or building a robot. Be sure to talk to them for at least 10 minutes every day, to know what is happening in their lives.
  1. Take a break: In one case in a while, take a intermission from the routine, and proceed a holiday or a picnic with your family. Utilize this time to the fullest by spending fourth dimension with them. Keep aside your phones and give your undivided attending to each other.
  1. Practice chores together: Mundane piece of work like cleaning the house can be fun when the whole family gets involved. You can prepare a twenty-four hour period in a calendar week or a month and appoint the kids every bit well equally the partner to revamp the house, declutter the basement, cook together, etc. At the end of the 24-hour interval, you will be satisfied to see how productive the day was.
  1. Family mean solar day at work: This is a 24-hour interval where you lot can bring your family to work. A family day at work is increasingly becoming popular as it helps in blending family, fun and work. Your family will have a take a chance to get to know about your job and might help boost your morale at work.
  1. Go on dates: Among taking intendance of kids and spending time with extended family unit, practice not ignore the relationship with your partner. Remember, the well being of your family depends on the harmony in your human relationship. In one case a while, leave kids with a babysitter and go on a appointment just the two of y'all. Take out fourth dimension for each other, and keep the spark alive.
  1. Assist your kids with schoolwork: Some other productive style to spend fourth dimension with your kids is to help them in their academics. You could exist good at English and your partner at Math, then take turns tutoring them. This way, yous will know well-nigh their studies and empathise their strengths and weaknesses.
  1.  Storytime: Who wouldn't like to hear a good story? This is a fun fashion to bail with children, ditching smartphones and other electronic devices. Gather your kids around and either read them a story out of a storybook or tell them instances from your childhood. You can likewise accept an quondam photo album, and become nostalgic together.
  1. Celebrate with grandparents: Circumstances might have made nuclear families popular, just never underestimate the influence of the older generation. Don't you still reminisce about the carefree days you spent at your grandma'southward place? Such memories are precious. Hence exist sure to make information technology a point to accept your children to visit their grandparents; the values and virtues they teach are invaluable.

If you are not in a state of affairs to spend much time with your family unit due to other obligations, then practice your best to be there with them as often every bit possible. If y'all are away from them, call them up every day, and talk even if you exercise not have anything important to say. These efforts are necessary because not spending time with your children might have some adverse furnishings on them.

What Would Happen If You lot Are Not Spending Fourth dimension With Your Child?

Consider this: You can buy an expensive birthday gift for your kid, merely does it give them happiness if you are not in that location for their birthday? No. While information technology is essential to work hard and provide for your family, spending quality fourth dimension with them is essential too. Here are some of the agin effects of not spending fourth dimension with children:

  1. Behavioral issues: Children, whose emotional and psychological needs that are not met, might develop insecurities and anger problems.(six). All these volition lead them to depend and trust strangers who might have reward of their innocence.
  1. Dependency on technology: When parents do non spend plenty time with children, the latter might end up spending time on gadgets and online entertainment to escape loneliness. Spending hours together on smartphones might hinder their physical and mental development. (7)
  1. Declining bookish performance: All the emotional distress leads to poor bookish operation, with no one to guide them through their education.(5)
  1. Withdrawal: A child deprived of attention and amore would eventually show signs of withdrawal. They may experience they are not loved and are not worthy of your fourth dimension. They might plow ambitious and resort to bullying to vent out their frustration and acrimony.

Time is precious. It is something that you lot tin can never get back no thing what. Make the most of the fourth dimension you can give to your family because it is futile to look back and regret later on when nothing is left for you. Understand that nothing can be more important than your family because they are the people who will be with yous always, in rain and sunshine and in the good and the bad times.

What is your take on spending time with family? Do let usa know in the comments section below.

References:

MomJunction's articles are written after analyzing the research works of expert authors and institutions. Our references consist of resources established by regime in their corresponding fields. You can learn more about the authenticity of the information we present in our editorial policy.

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Dr. Domonique Rice began her career in the banking industry simply eventually moved to counseling and therapy. She did her Masters in Marital, Couples, and Family Therapy and a doctorate in Advanced Studies in Human Services. She runs her private practice OhioMFT. Dr. Rice loves to see couples and families heal and get back together after her therapy sessions. In... more

Sanjana did her graduation in Pharmacy and postal service graduation in management. It was during her first job, she recognized her skills in writing and began working equally a freelance writer. Later, she completely moved into content writing and began working as a total-time content writer. Sanjana's articles in MomJunction cover topics related to new parenting and relationships. A fitness enthusiast... more