Family time during the holiday is great….and complicated. So many unspoken needs and hopes, so many conflicting communication styles. It is easy to quickly retreat into our personal devices to soothe our tense feelings. My advice to myself, and to all of us, is to reach for a board game whenever possible. For my family, it’s Boggle. I’m also hoping to try to play Bananagrams more.
I filmed a family last week playing a Dr. Seuss board game, and it seriously warmed my heart. They all had each other's attention and playfulness—true connection in action.
It is a lot of fun to play video games as a family but we have to keep in mind it can also be very activating, eliciting adrenaline and cortisol. Bringing down the intensity level a bit with a slower paced silly board game can be awesome.
I keep thinking about the unconscious barriers that prevent us parents from not pulling out board games or cards more often. For me, I was scared of games that could take so much time. I have a hard time sitting still for long, and Monopoly can be torture for me. But, for the shorter games I am all in because I know that when we start to play the game, I feel such a strong sense of connection.
The key is of course not just gifting the game, but gifting your time in playing the game, more than once. Consider setting a goal for yourself of the number of times you will play a game with your family over the next eight weeks. Two times? Four times?
Here is my list of old favorites and some others I want to try this week.
Here are a few conversation starters for this week’s Tech Talk Tuesday:
Family time during the holiday is great….and complicated. So many unspoken needs and hopes, so many conflicting communication styles. It is easy to quickly retreat into our personal devices to soothe our tense feelings. My advice to myself, and to all of us, is to reach for a board game whenever possible. For my family, it’s Boggle. I’m also hoping to try to play Bananagrams more.
I filmed a family last week playing a Dr. Seuss board game, and it seriously warmed my heart. They all had each other's attention and playfulness—true connection in action.
It is a lot of fun to play video games as a family but we have to keep in mind it can also be very activating, eliciting adrenaline and cortisol. Bringing down the intensity level a bit with a slower paced silly board game can be awesome.
I keep thinking about the unconscious barriers that prevent us parents from not pulling out board games or cards more often. For me, I was scared of games that could take so much time. I have a hard time sitting still for long, and Monopoly can be torture for me. But, for the shorter games I am all in because I know that when we start to play the game, I feel such a strong sense of connection.
The key is of course not just gifting the game, but gifting your time in playing the game, more than once. Consider setting a goal for yourself of the number of times you will play a game with your family over the next eight weeks. Two times? Four times?
Here is my list of old favorites and some others I want to try this week.
Here are a few conversation starters for this week’s Tech Talk Tuesday:
Cooking creates self-confidence, self-efficacy and is a great offline activity. Today, I have some food moves to help inspire your child to up their cooking game — whether they are naysayers or Chez Panisse wannabes, I think they’ll like these.
READ MORE >Plain and simple, there is one thing I recommend doing during the holidays for love and laughter. Bring out old photo albums and put them in a high-trafficked spot in your home — be it the kitchen table or a table in a living room. I predict we won’t have photo albums in the future, but we do right now.
READ MORE >We all know tech gifts are a big part of the holiday season, but as always, I offer tech-free ideas today. I am not putting down tech — many wonderful tech gifts will get exchanged this year, but I hope you will find this tech-free list to be a bit helpful.
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.