We lead such busy lives nowadays and many of us fail to put aside quality time to spend with our family. It is a very ‘me me’ culture and because of it families are suffering all across the globe. The Internet is a fantastic thing but it has brought with it many disadvantages as well. If you were to look around you right now, you would see almost the vast majority of people with smart phones in their hands and all of them are looking downwards. It’s great that we have all of this information at our fingertips, but the family bond has suffered as a result. Kids no longer sit down at the dinner table to have lunch and they just walk into the kitchen, pick up the dinner plate and find somewhere in the home where they can be by themselves to keep looking at their smartphone. It is a very sad thing to see and experience.
This is why it is so important to re-establish the family bond and to start investing in relationships again. Families are being pulled apart by technology and something has to give. I suppose you could think about chartering a private yacht in Indonesia and taking your family away across the ocean for a few weeks, but realistically there are other things that you could be doing right now to bring your family back together again. The following are just some of the things that you can put in place.
* Eat together again – Clearly it is not possible for everyone to come together as a group every single day, but you should at least try to get everyone together at least once a week. The secret is to let everyone know in advance that it is going to happen so that there can be no excuses later saying that they didn’t know. One of the key rules about eating together as a family is to ban smart phones or any other digital device from the dinner table. This will allow everyone to interact properly and to find out about how their lives are going and if they need any assistance.
* Set some goals – I am sure that there is a lot of work that needs to be done around the house and so this could be a great tip to bring all of the family together for the common good. There is lots of cleaning to do around the house and maybe the garden needs some attention as well. Mum is probably feeling like she does everything around the house and so it would be nice for her to have a day off for a change and for the rest of the family to pitch in.
* Organise a movie night – Everyone loves to watch a movie and so it is an excellent idea that will bring the kids and the adults together to watch a room that everyone gets to pick together. There could be popcorn, pizza and soft drinks, and everyone can have a great evening together as a family. To learn more about bringing your family back together again, have a look here.
These are just a few ideas that you could use to strengthen your family bond and there are many more to choose from. It is up to you as the adult to stop your family from drifting apart and becoming strangers.