I never realized when I was a kid, what an effort goes into family time.
It’s not something that just happens, family time is something you have to intentionally prioritize.
(FTC disclosure: This post is underwritten by JOLLY TIME Pop corn, and the Mom It Forward Blogger Network. As Always, all opinions are 100% my own.)
Otherwise it just doesn’t happen. I imagine that part of the problem, which is specific to having littles, is that we’re together literally all day long, so it’s easy to forget to be intentional about spending time with them, and not just around them.
Naturally, the way you’re raised has a huge influence on not only how you view family time, but what you view as family time.
When I was young, we didn’t have a TV, so a lot of our time spent together centered around reading booked, and to this day, in my opinion, TV time simply doesn’t count as quality family time.
My mom use to pop a 5 gallon bucket of popcorn to keep around (there were eight of us kids, so five gallons isn’t as much as it sounds like ;)), and it was the snack at our house.
As teenagers, we literally would sit with a bowl of popcorn, and read books, the same way other teens would eat popcorn while they watched a movie.
It was a whole different world I suppose, but it was a good one, filled with imagination, and lively discussions and debates.
That’s the kind of family time I want to serve my kids.
The kind where pestering for five more minutes of tv is replaced by pleas for just one more chapter, the kind where when we do finally watch the movie that was based on the book, it doesn’t measure up to the imaginary world they created in their minds.
I want to read Little Britches, and Little House In The Big Woods to them at first, and the Lord of the Rings later.
But first, I have to make time for family time.
How To Make Time For Family Time
1. Have a talk with your spouse and determine what time of day, in general, will work best for you family. Some people are adamant that morning is the best time to spend together, others advocate fro evening, but the truth is, there’s no one size fits all approach. You family may even prefer the middle of the day!
2. Once you’ve come up with a basic plan, write it on your day planner. If you don’t block out that piece of time, you’re so much less likely to actually do it!
3. Set alarms. You may want to set an alarm for when family time starts, or you may want to set it to go off before time as your 5 (or 15) minute warning so you can get chores squared away before you start. For instance, if you have an evening family time, you may want to set an alarm for fifteen minutes beforehand as a signal to get dinner cleaned up so you can be with the family in peace.
4. Have a plan. What are you going to do during family time? Read? Play games? Talk? Have a plan of action, and if your plan is to simply sit together and talk, be sure to have a list of questions or conversation starters.
5. Make it fun! This is especially important for small children. You don’t want your kids to dread it, so sprinkle some fun in with family time. It can be as simple as reading silly books like Go, Dog Go!, acting out scenes from a book your reading, or a coloring contest. Just have some age appropriate fun!
If this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is! There’s a lot of work that goes in to family time, but as they say, nothing worthwhile is ever easy, and there is nothing more worthwhile than spending time together as a family.
I know you want to know more about the popcorn the kids are eating in these pictures. 😉
Occasionally on Sunday afternoons, we like to make a healthish version of caramel corn to snack on together, and this batch, like so many of our popcorn treats now, is made with JOLLY TIME pop corn.
JOLLY TIME pop corn is a 101 year old company that serves non-GMO and organic popcorn. We typically buy their yellow popcorn, but though you can’t tell it with the golden caramel covering it, this batch was made with their white kernels, and I love how beautifully white and crisp it turned out!
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(FTC disclosure: This post is underwritten by JOLLY TIME Pop corn, and the Mom It Forward Blogger Network. As Always, all opinions are 100% my own.)
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