Planning A Family Night

Families who have been touched by cancer understand spending time together on a regular basis is important. So, if you’re new to this and need help with some ideas here is a great place to start. Setting aside one night a week for family activities is a great way to stay connected.

Outside commitments such as lots of visits to the hospital, chemo-therapy, jobs, school, sibling schedules and other activities can cause family members to lose touch with each other. A good way for families to reclaim some quality time together is to organize and commit to holding a Family Night on a weekly basis. I would say that the most important goal in holding a regular Family Night is to build family unity.

Make Activity Night a Priority

The first step towards implementing a Family Night is to commit to making it a priority. Family members should decide on when, where and how often to hold it, mark it on the calendar and stick to the date as close as possible. If a night needs to be rescheduled it should be done as soon as possible so that it is not completely forgotten.

Planning Basics for Family Night

A Family Activity Night should reflect the interests of all family members. It should always be fun and enjoyable. Whether you have to work around hospital visits/clinic hours or plan a night together in your child’s hospital room itself, if need be.

Some Ideas for Family Night

Family night does not follow any particular schedule other than it should occur on a regular basis. Some ideas for family Nights include the following and these are just a starter and some can be done in the hospitals as well:

• Picking a board game of interest
• Family video games (Nintendo Wii makes wonderful family games now)
• Watching a movie suitable for and of interest to all family members.
• Scrapbooking or art/crafts projects
• Charades
• Theme nights
• Story-time (let one begin a story and then the rest will have to follow it by adding to the story and then one person will end it)
• Bake together (let the whole family get involved in baking something)

An example is we would have a theme night every once in a while such as Shrek night. We watched all the Shrek movies, made all green food, green snacks and decorated everything in green. Also, currently we play Wii together as a family. Nintendo made a game called “Family Game Night”. We love it, playing with our kids. Our kids have a blast and enjoy the time with us. Something so small made such a huge difference in our lives.

Holding a Family Activity Night on a regular basis does not only give families a break from busy schedules. It provides family members with specific opportunities to get to know each other better on a deeper lever. Most of all, it helps families to strengthen their relationships with each other as they spend more time together.

 

 

Nintendo Wii Family Game Night