Quality time with family can be created using this simple family bonding activity when you don't know what to do at home with your kids. The Parenting Junkie shares what to do at home to create family bonding. This quality time activity is a great way to make family bonding memorable. In this video you will learn how to make quality time activities less intimidating for parents by simply learning to have quality time with kids cuddled up on the couch and looking back at family memories. By the end of this video you will have family bonding activities to do at home that quickly create family memories and healthy family relationships during this moment in time. There are so many things to do at home with kids - why not make them a way to spend quality time with family, build a family bond and create family memories!
So how do you turn a forced lockdown into a family retreat?
Well, one of the ways is that you set a little time aside
for the things that feel like a retreat,
like a vacation from regular life.
Now, I hope that you're living a regular life
by this point, right?
We all have to adjust and adapt,
but this is our reality at the moment,
and that means we're working, we're hustling,
we're doing all the things that we might have to do
to keep our lives running smoothly.
Our jobs, our businesses, our households.
But I also want you to set out a little bit of time today
to revel and to connect and to bond with your kids
over storytelling and memory making.
Okay, so what do I mean by that?
Well, my guess is that you might have some family albums,
some old photos from your own childhood,
or some pictures on your phone
from the day that your child was born, for example.
And I would love for you to set a little bit of time
aside today to actually look over those pictures.
Maybe you discover some old picture
that you have to send to your sister,
or something that you have to tell your child about,
about the time that you were pregnant with them
or expecting them.
It is an amazing experience to sit down
and tell stories with kids,
stories about how you and your partner met,
stories about how they came into the world,
stories about how that changed you
and changed your partnership and your family forever.
So I want you to really think about
how much these moments can influence our children's lives.
I know we're all very worried
about how our children are experiencing this time,
about how we are experiencing this time,
but it is very soothing to our nervous system
to settle in for some storytelling and bonding in that way.
It's an ancient practice that's embedded in our DNA code,
in our genetic code, to tell the group stories.
And this is a very powerful way of forming family identity.
Forming our family identity
is one of the opportunities of this lockdown time.
It's a time to discover who we are as a family,
what we stand for, what type of stories we tell
when we're being given the chance.
And I think that that is really an exciting
and meaningful way to bring fulfillment.
I talk a lot about creating family bliss,
and I say creating because we literally have to craft
those experiences.
You have to craft the experiences of bonding,
like crafting rituals, right?
We have a ritual where every Friday we light candles
and welcome Sabbath and take on a day
of screen-free and tech-free living, right?
Maybe you have a ritual around bedtime, around bath time.
Maybe there's some time that you sing specific songs
or listen to specific music
or meet with specific people when that's available.
So can you create an experience today of bonding?
Can you light a candle?
Can you get cozy under the blankets?
Maybe you can light a fire.
Maybe you get some hot chocolate or some cookies
and you look through these old pictures
and tell the stories, the stories of the grandparents,
the stories of the heritage, the stories of the culture,
the stories of you and your partner
or the story of how your child came to the world.
These moments can create magic in the day,
and it's a day that's otherwise, I know,
chaotic and stressful and full of so many things
that we don't have a chance to just sit down and connect.
So your challenge today is to bond over family memories,
to create family stories together,
and to really experience beautiful family bonding today.
So if you can share a picture of yourself
snuggled with your child or perhaps some picture
that you told your child a story about,
what stories are you sharing today?
How are you creating memories?
How are you crafting the sense of family identity
and creating family bliss?
Don't forget to share it out with the hashtag playpandemic
and invite all your friends to do the same.
What a beautiful way to spend a moment
during this crisis in the world, a moment of retreat,
a moment of sacred connection,
a moment of true family bonding.
