Tips on Spending Quality Time with Your Family
We’ve heard this so many times, that having quality time with family is important for the family relationships and development of the children. Working parents sometimes rarely spend time with their families. The kids were already asleep when we got home from work. As a result, we only spend time on the weekends, and rarely know the daily life of our children and partners other than on weekends.
Before we discuss the tips for quality time with family, it would be nice if we understand more deeply about what is quality time with family. Quality time with family is time dedicated by the family to determine and do activities together. Offer (2013) stated in her research, that families who do activities together and fathers who spend time with their families while eating have a positive impact on children's emotional well-being. But, spending quality time with your children will not only have a positive impact on them, but will also have a positive impact on you and your partner.
So, here are some tips for spending time with your family:
1. Make regular time to chat with family
Sometimes, we have our own busy lives as individuals in the family. Taking time to chat is very important, so that our family feels cared for. Make a little time in your busy life and your family to just chat and find out about each other's daily lives, for example asking how they were that day, sometimes, asking simple things like this can be very appreciated by our children and partners. And if it can be done frequently it can create a good routine. What is also important in communicating is the quality of the communication!
2. Active listening
Being an active listener does take practice, but this ability can be honed over time and if we do it often. When your partner, or your child is telling their stories, listen to their stories without any judgment and demands, give your full attention, only give opinions when asked, and accept all the emotions that they feel, because by being an active listener, our families will be easier to open up, and in return, they will also do the same when we tell our stories.
3. Appreciate and support them
Sometimes, there are unpleasant events that every individual in the family goes through, for example the father fails to get the business deal he wants, or the son loses his basketball tournament. Therefore, it is important for families to support each other when they are down, so that they can be confident again and bounce back from failure. And last but not least, appreciate every success you and your family get.
4. Minimize the use of technology
When you have planned time with your family, it would be nice if every family member understands the rules to minimize the use of technology when they are together. Give an understanding that the purpose of not using technology when together is to create good and quality communication. Having technology around us when we are together can create unwanted distractions, even unwanted fights. Therefore, use technology when with your family, only as necessary. So that every family member also feels cared for.
Nowadays, there are many alternatives to spending time with family, so that families who are far apart can spend time together, for example via video calls. You can create time together by playing with your family via online games, for example by playing spin the wheel. For families who still have the opportunity to live together, we can also spend as much time together on weekdays as we parents can. What needs to be emphasized is the quality of time with family, not the quantity, because the amount of time with family does not reflect family harmony either.
Written By: Dinda Akzenta
References:
Roudabush, Claire. 2019. Why Spending Quality Time With Your Children is Important https://extension.sdstate.edu/why-spending-quality-time-your-children-important.
Offer, Shira. 2013. Family Time Activities and Adolescents’ Emotional Well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family 75 (February 2013): 26 – 41 DOI:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.01025.x
family, keluarga, siblings, free time, quality time, leisure, tips, parenting, saudara, liburan
Newborn 0 - 6 Months / Newborn 0 - 6 Bulan / Parenting / Pola Asuh / Family / Keluarga / Tips on Spending Quality Time with Your Family
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Personalized book to trigger the imagination and curiosity to discover the wonders of our wonderful Indonesia. The food, music, fashion, language, landscape and the culture. They all never fail to amaze us. What better legacy can we pass on for Indonesia than by instilling nationalism to the future generation of this part of the planet called heaven on earth.
