In today’s fast-paced world, finding time to be with your loved ones seems to be getting harder. With every family member’s busy schedule, your partner or kids may be unavailable even when you’re free. Changing this situation involves organizing your family’s schedule and managing the house properly. Discover the following six ways you can carve out more family time in your day.
Limit TV and Electronics
If your family members spend most of their time together watching television or staring at mobile phones, you may need to change something. By limiting TV in the evenings and banning phones at the dinner table, your family can enjoy a conversation or play board games together. Your kids will also have more time for homework and reading.
Plan Your Weekly Meals
When you plan your meals at the beginning of the week, you don’t waste time every day trying to figure out what to eat. You’ll also need fewer trips to the supermarket, and you’ll possibly save money when you buy items in bulk. You can always cook some meals in advance when you know what you’ll be eating any given day. Here’s some family meal inspiration to help you with that!
You don’t always have to be a super parent and do all the household chores on your own. If your kids are old enough, they can start helping you out with chores and shouldering some of the responsibilities. You’ll get your chores done faster, and you’ll have more time to spend together. Your kids can also learn about having responsibilities and working as a team.
Consider Home Automation
If you have to program your home’s heat settings every day or if you worry about whether you turned off all the lights every night, home automation may be a solution for you. You can install smart thermostats in your home, which automatically set the temperature based on your activities, or use timer lights, which turn off at a specific time each day.
Cut Down on Children’s Activities
Enrolling children in different activities can be a great way for them to learn new skills, but some parents overdo the activities and children can end up being overscheduled. Kids also need family time to talk about their days and enjoy their parents’ company. Be sure that the activities that they choose allow them to explore their own interests instead of fill up time in their schedules.
Be Flexible With Your Own Schedule
Sometimes you have to adjust your own schedule. You don’t need to stop your personal activities like jogging with a friend or attending a book club, but you need to find the time to enjoy your family. Your kids will appreciate when you stop to tell them bedside stories or help them out with homework.
At the end of the day, you don’t need dramatic changes to find time to enjoy your family. These adjustments may not happen overnight, but with some simple changes and new rules, you may have plenty of moments to spend time together as a family.
How do you go about carving more family time out of your day? Do you have any tips to share?
*This is a collaborative post
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There are some great tips and ideas here personally I think the key to a happy family life is to be organised and try to follow some sort of routine
This is great advice, especially the part about cutting down on kid’s activities to make room for family time. Kids should learn through activities but not be crushed, stressed and overworked by them.
What great tips. I know for me I need to leave my phone somewhere else more often. Jamie loves doing the chores so that’s always a good thing to do together. When he starts school in September I will try to find more time for him at home as that time will be even more precious. I want him to do some clubs but I will limit them