Reasons to Create Family Time Traditions (+ Ideas)

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Reasons to Create a Family Time Traditions with ideas
Wellness Mama » Blog » Motherhood » Reasons to Create Family Time Traditions (+ Ideas)

I’m realizing that the old saying seems to be true… time does go faster as you get older. My kids are growing so fast, and my mom-brain has started to realize that time before my oldest ones leave home is growing much shorter.

For this reason, I’ve really been trying to start some family traditions and spend quality time together as a family. While I hope that our kids still want to spend time with us when they are teenagers, we’re making family time a focus while they still enjoy it.

The Importance of Family Time

The research is strong on the importance of family time and building a family culture. Children from families with a strong and positive family culture tend to do better on tests, feel more secure, and are more likely to come to their parents when they have a problem.

Of course, unstructured family time is often when we forge the strongest childhood memories. The conversations that just happen on a lazy Saturday, or the memories made while cooking dinner together, are immeasurable. These spontaneous bonding times are hard to plan, but I’ve found that planning regular family activities seems to make the spontaneous ones occur more often too.

Creating the Time

I’m not the type of mom that loves to spend hours on the floor playing legos with my kids. (I gave birth six times so my kids would always have a sibling to play with!) At the same time, I do love spending time with them and try to make sure that we always make time for fun family activities together.

Our family schedule is a little unusual with homeschooling and strange work-from-home hours, but we always make time at some point during the week to do things together. It may be a family game night, a basketball game in the backyard, or a camping trip, but it’s always a priority for our family schedule.

And I get it… in our busy world, it is great to think about making the time to do things together as a family but incredibly tough to actually do it. Here’s one tip that helped me find ways to make the time:

A “Terminal Day”

I heard this idea from one of the guests on the Tim Ferriss Podcast, and love it. He said that each week he has what he calls “a terminal day.” Basically, he spends time doing the things he would do if he found out he had a terminal illness. He reasons that we are technically all terminal since none of us make it out alive, so why not spend the time now living the way we would if we had a limited number of days left with our loved ones?

For me, this may mean doing two days’ worth of school in one with the kids and taking the next day to go to a movie. Or taking one of the kids out for coffee to help him work on a project or new idea. Or just having a picnic in the backyard on a random Tuesday.

This day each week (often Sunday) helps me focus on the truly important things in life.

Ideas for Family Time Traditions

Here are a few of our favorite family time activities:

Family Game Night

My parents had family game night when I was a kid, and now I enjoy doing this tradition with my own kids. Playing board games or card games as a family often leads to lots of laughter and fun conversation. These don’t happen every week (as my husband isn’t the biggest fan of board games), but we try. Some of our favorite games are:

  • Uno
  • Monopoly (Kid favorite but it takes FOREVER. We usually pair an adult with each younger kid for this one.)
  • Tsuro

Cooking Together

My kids were really helpful in testing the recipes for my cookbook, and we have some great memories from cooking together. I love cooking with my kids for a few reasons:

  1. I have to cook anyway and it is fun to have the company
  2. They are learning a skill they can use forever while we cook together
  3. They are more likely to eat the food when they help cook it

One of my favorite resources for family cooking is the Kids Cook Real Food course which teaches basic to advanced cooking techniques in an easy-to-learn method. My kids love it and I love getting to cook with them while someone else teaches them (by video).

Soft Rock Saturday

When my husband and I first got married, money was really tight. We didn’t have much spending income after food and bills, and in hindsight, I love that we had this time in our marriage. It made us come up with and appreciate free experiences and traditions. One such tradition that we created during that time is Soft Rock Saturday.

Basically, on Saturday mornings, we would wake up and turn on the soft rock playlist on his iPod and belt out the songs while we made breakfast and cleaned the house. The tradition stuck and even now, our kids wake up on Saturday and exclaim “Soft Rock Saturday!” It often turns into a dance party while I make breakfast.

Now, the tradition involves turning on Amazon Prime Music stations like their soft rock station, or James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel, Chicago, Air Supply, and other 1970s classics.

Camping

Turns out there are a lot of health benefits to camping, but it is also a great bonding experience. It is definitely more weather-dependent than some other activities, but our kids love it! Sometimes, camping is as simple as pitching a tent in the backyard for a night or camping out in the treehouse. It doesn’t have to be fancy to be fun! If you don’t have camping equipment, here’s our review of the tents and other camping gear we’ve tried.

Nerf Fight

Another kid favorite in our house!

A few years ago, everyone got a nerf gun (this one) and some extra bullets for Christmas. Every once in a while, we have an epic family nerf battle and the kids love it. Sometimes it is parents vs. kids or guys vs. girls and we make up different rules each time.

The best part? This can be done inside or outside, depending on weather. It gets the kids moving and is a fun family activity.

Reading Together

My mother was really good about reading to my brother and I when we were children. I remember her reading many books to us over breakfast while growing up. In fact, I first “read” (heard) The Chronicles of Narnia and Little House on the Prairie, along with many other books, this way.

I’m admittedly not as good as I’d like to be on reading aloud to my kids. Most of them read independently now,  but they still all love when I read out loud to them. We’re trying to get better at reading a story to them at bedtime or over breakfast more often.

Movie Night

Another kid favorite at our house. We try not to default to movie night too often, but the kids love camping out on the living room floor and watching a movie together. If the movie we are watching is based on a book, we try to read the book (or at least let the older kids read it) before watching the movie.

Art Time

Our kids love art activities, and we will sometimes spend time together painting, drawing, or coloring together. The simplicity of these activities makes them perfect for facilitating great conversation.

You don’t need to be an artist, either. This collaborative block by block art project is one of our favorites because it’s simple to do, takes no special materials, and is interesting for all ages.

Bottom Line: Making Time for Family Time

In today’s fast-paced world, it seems like family time is one of the things that often falls through the cracks. I’m pointing my finger back at myself on this one! But at the end of the day (and at the end of my life), these will be the times that matter and the ones we wish there had been more of.

Family time doesn’t have to be expensive, elaborate, or overly structured. Finding a few simple ways to spend time together each week helps build a family culture and has many positive effects for all of us.

How does your family spend time together? Share your ideas below!

Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

16 responses to “Reasons to Create Family Time Traditions (+ Ideas)”

  1. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    Family game night!! :OD First off, my MIL has MADE time for our kids from day one. When they got a little older and would go to spend the night, it was every other Friday. (date night for mom and dad!) At some point, like you, I realized the kids were getting older and things were going to be different soon. (we have a son, about to turn 18, and a daughter, she just turned 15) So I had the idea for our “Family Game Night” on the Fridays that they didn’t didn’t spend with their grandma. (this was several years ago) And our kids LOVED it! Each Friday we took turns in planning the game night, it was really fun to see what each of us had planned. We made up our own version of “Name that tune” and lots of quiz show games too! Sometimes we would color and just sit and talk. We always had a few different games planned for the evening. We always made cookies and usually ended the night with a favorite movie. Then my son started working (summer jobs) and the nights with grandma and family game nights were harder to plan. We still try to get in a game night, no matter what night it is, we still enjoy it too.
    Of course we spend time with the kids other than game night….lol…..we go camping (we have a camper) and that is ALWAYS fun! We have had our camper just 2 years now and we have been out I think like 14 times? We enjoy going in the winter mostly. It’s just time well spent as a family. Talking around the fire, late nights, hiking, and I can’t even begin to tell you about the crazy pictures my son and husband love doing after dark! LOL They have taken some really neat pictures using light tricks and fire sticks in the dark…. my son loves those times the most.
    Our son is about to graduate (we have home schooled our kids) and he just started at a new job, a part time position that will be full time once he turns 18. He always talks about the kids he will have someday and wanting to home school and have family game night and go camping too. And that makes you feel good! My daughter, says she is never having kids. LOL Too much work she says. ;o)
    Have a wonderful day!!
    Michelle

  2. Daryl Holiday Avatar
    Daryl Holiday

    “Cinnamon”? I just threw out my first batch after remembering this… It’s the “Cinnamon” from your recipe. Most all of the so called “Cinnamon” used in the US is not true cinnamon, but is ground up or whole stick Cassia bark from (thanks again to South China growers and our MAGA govt lobbyists and the great FDA) that contains CoumaRin, which is toxic to human livers. It can kill rats rather effectively. Check it out, read all about the toxicity and opinions from Europeans and others here:
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coumarin
    Google your brains out…True Ceylon cinnamon is safe, not Cassia. For that and other matters, our country is allowing millions of tons of Roundup (glyphosates) and neonicantinoids, on our lawns, soybeans and corn AND other crops, and it causes our 20,000 species of bees serious harm, colony collapse. These chemicals are not allowed in Europe.
    The Russians will buy our wheat only if it has not been sprayed with glyphosates. Corn syrup and soybeans are in almost everything on your grocery shelves.
    I will never, ever, have a cinnamon roll again.
    Always trust those in power, especially now.

  3. Lisa Avatar

    What a nice article- thank you!
    I have a few family favorites to share for when anyone declares “family game night”. Most of them are just improvised games. The real point is spending time together and creating memories, which beats out everything else on the to do list! I have a 9 year old daughter who is full of energy.
    Hide and seek type games- there are lots of opportunities to be creative here- our last hide and seek game included wearing small head lamps and playing in the dark.
    Riddle me- we take and object and hide it, then have to make up a riddle for the other person to solve to figure out where the object is. That one keeps the brain sharp!
    Secret Agent- the guard puts a “prize” in a specific place, then walks all over the house in a specific pattern. The other person has to learn the pattern and sneak around the guard to get to the prize without being seen!
    Have fun creating new family traditions!

  4. Jennie Avatar

    I was just spending time with my friend’s two step-daughters, and they really bonded with me in just one day because I actually spent time with them and asked them questions about their life.
    I think many parents forget how important just listening and being interested is. All you have to do is make your kids feel like they’re really important and be interested in their lives.
    A great way to bond is by learning together too…

  5. Emily Avatar

    I was just spending time with my friend’s two step-daughters, and they really bonded with me in just one day because I actually spent time with them and asked them questions about their life.
    I think many parents forget how important just listening and being interested is. All you have to do is make your kids feel like they’re really important and be interested in their lives.

  6. Randi Tatsch Avatar
    Randi Tatsch

    Love these ideas! Perfect for summertime too. Have you read the 5 Love Languages? I feel loved when I have quality time with my family so this works perfectly for me!

  7. Ariella Corey Avatar
    Ariella Corey

    I totally agree , family time is so important and is something that people lack so much nowadays.It is something that is so precious?

  8. Estelle Avatar

    I loved your post about family time. We actually as religious Jews do a 24 hour tech free day every week! It starts sundown friday evening and ends saturday sundown. We have 3 family meals friday night saturday lunch and saturday evening. There’s no phonecalls texting emailing business work etc. The men pray the kids play and the mummies just try and keep everyone happy and enjoy themselves as well! This is the day the kids get the most cuddles, one on one attention and quality play time developing their imaginations etc. I definitely would not be able to focus on them as much without being tech free! Can I suggest that each mother can do her own version of a tech free day to be able to focus better on her children? Try it hope you enjoy! It’s also so healthy to escape for a bit the constant stress that phonecalls texting emailing inevitably gives us!

  9. tisha Avatar

    Right now our main family time is during dinner. All phones and electronics are off. We all chat about our day. We are working to bring in more family based activities, especially with it being spring.

  10. Niti S. Avatar

    So true! Family traditions r so precious. I really like your tradition of reading together. Am gonna take ur idea on that!
    Our holiday tradition is watching baby videos together now that my babies r teens! Try that. It is amazing!

  11. Cindy Avatar

    We lived about 20 mi from the beach. When our family went to the beach it looked like we were moving – but we had everything we needed for a wonderful day – and a major expense where is the gas and parking. Picnics and hikes in the mountains – in the desert – those are fun too! Treasure hunts and lip synch silly stuff…. So many opportunities to have fun together. (Fishing was usually part of camping – and, yes, we all learned how to fish and fly cast.) Campfires and singing make great memories! Our family fun and love has been shared.

  12. Annette Salda Avatar
    Annette Salda

    Random beach days are the best! No planning or headache, just a pit stop to the beach in our clothes, shoes off and hang out for an hour or so.

  13. Maribeth Alexander Avatar
    Maribeth Alexander

    I love this! I’m such a proponent of family traditions, and your post gives so many ideas I never thought of. I’m now a grandmother thinking of ways to make traditions with my grandchildren:)

  14. Donna Avatar

    It is wonderful that you made family time with your kids growing up. Family is special and they grow up way to fast and everyone is so busy it will go by before you know it. I love the music idea. Kids need to know the joys of music today and yesterdays too. Such a great idea. You sound like a wonderful mom. Spend special time with your husband too. Couples time is important also.

  15. Cindy Avatar

    It is inspiring to learn that you and your family are engaging in the same family fun that we had. There were two additional activities that we loved: sometimes in the evening, we would just sit and talk (for example) – we would go on flights of fantasy about what we would invent if we had unlimited resources, or we would just talk about whatever and a little later try to track back to where we started the conversation. It was great fun! We also had multiple family camping trips. One favorite activity of a friend’s family was for the children to make up a play or musical performance and the parents would be invited to sit and watch. (They always applauded.) Looking forward to reading these posts. We know that family that works together and plays together (and prays together) stays together. Thanks, Katie.

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