Gaming Time

Haha, who doesn’t love Gaming Time? Especially in our house these days with teenage boys, one of whom wants to be a video game designer! But Gaming Time is much more to us than just video games.

Gaming Time is nothing more than just taking the time to play as a family and let go of all the stress we each carry. Every one of us from the parents to the kids has our own level of chaos that we deal with daily. So it is absolutely critical to embrace your inner child and just PLAY.

It is really easy to forget that we need to take time out of the chaos and just relax. One tool that we use is family game night. Everyone gets to have their turn to choose what we play. Sometimes it’s a board game, other times it’s a trip to the bowling alley. Whatever it is we are all in, no phones, no connection to the outside world, no distractions. We come together as a family and show up for each other.

We must often admit the games that get picked, we stink at them and it is not very much fun to play. That doesn’t matter though, because we are not playing to win, we are playing for the quality time we get to spend together as a family. We are creating memories that will last a lifetime and hopefully teach our kids a tradition to bring into their own families one day.

The important thing we have decided that is most important with our family gaming time is to make sure everyone feels that their pick is valuable, relevant, and entertaining to all. By doing this we are teaching our kids the value of respecting others, and not just because you have to but rather because you should. We help them to understand how you show up for other people, especially those close to you, is how they will show up for you. It also helps them realize that if they showed whoever picked the game that they disapproved, how bad it would hurt them if the roles are reversed.

Too often in the world, we live in today, people speak before thinking, and the timeless saying of common sense isn’t as sensible. Having our kids learn a simple routine of playing a game their peer may have picked out that they love but having the common sense and forward thinking to not roll their eyes or to grunt and make faces. By doing this, we are teaching them a life value that needs to be more dominant in our world today. Thinking before speaking and realizing how we may affect someone with our responses.

Our vision in life is to create an environment where families can thrive by doing more together by influencing and instilling the values to shape a better future, starting with our own.

Over the coming months, we are planning on starting to engage more of our friends and families into some community Gaming Time.

Until then have fun playing.

SouthernFamily