Quality time with your children and your spouse.  It’s a great concept, but for many families finding time together is difficult with our busy lives.  In many families you have both parents working and children have so many activities – soccer, music lessons, and other school events.  Spending time together as a family seems to be a challenge.  However, spending time with your family is an important way for everyone to feel loved and cared for.  How about setting aside one night a week to have a family night with your family?

Family night doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate, and it doesn’t even need to be at night.  If a weekend morning or afternoon is better for you, then by all means you can have your family night during the day.  At the beginning of the week sit down and decide on a time when you and your spouse can spend some uninterrupted quality time with your children – no television, no computers, no telephones, and no video games are allowed.  When your children are young you can decide what day will be family day, and as your children get older you can sit down on Sunday and figure out what day is best for family night that week.

Here are some ideas you can use for activities for your family night:

Outdoor activities.  If the weather is good, how about taking a walk around the neighborhood with your children?  If you have bicycles, a family bike ride is nice.  A picnic in the park where your kids can roast marshmallows and hot dogs is always fun.  If you enjoy activities such as camping or fishing they are also great ways to spend time with your children away from the distractions you find in your home.  One of my favorite things to do as a child was to play miniature golf (or as we used to call it putt-putt golf).

Indoor activities.  A nice family sit down dinner is a great way to spend time together.  If your children are older you can dress up and have a “formal” dinner right in your kitchen!  Playing board games like Candy Land, Payday or Monopoly are always fun.  If you have the patience a jigsaw puzzle is also a nice activity with your children.  How about having a family slumber party?  Pull out your sleeping bags, pop some popcorn and tell some ghost stories.

It doesn’t matter what you do with your family on family night.  What makes family night so important and successful is the fact that you are spending quality time together.  Start to make this a priority in your family – schedule time together every week with your children and your spouse.