Nice family rituals that will help you get close and cheer you up

Good family relations, mutual understanding, respect, common goals and interests are all shaped by common rituals and traditions. In our article we have gathered nine pleasant activities through which you will strengthen relationships within the family, get close and cheer each other up.

First try the classic solution for an interesting weekend evening. Take board games. Monopoly, Imajinarium, Evolution and other popular entertainment ways. Hot pizza or delivery of something delicious will add to this day’s peculiarity. Don’t forget to go on bicycle trips, to the cinema or to the museum. Find a place that evokes pleasant memories for everyone and go back there from time to time.

Set aside «family time» in your schedule and dedicate it to joint entertainment, planning and communication. This advice at the beginning of the legendary book «7 skills of highly effective families» is given by the famous American lecturer Steven Cowie. According to the author, communicating with each member of the family would enrich and improve the quality of life in a cultural way.

We can discuss plans and resolve important issues at the family council. Now, don’t be frightened by this tradition. These conversations are actually meant to better understand each other’s motives, to make leisure plans, to discuss the overall budget, not to criticize the performance or the disorder in the room. It is obligatory to involve younger children in the discussion, so that the child will learn to better understand the family and be responsible.

Memories and relics bring together the entire family very well. It’s great if you get together with your grandparents every once in a while, look at photo albums, archive videos. A family photo shoot in the air or in a familiar setting will help capture new moments.

Diversify your holidays and birthdays through trips to your favorite places or home quests. Hide the presents in different corners of the house and write some clues on how to find them. The clues can also be not simple: riddles, puzzles and small active tasks for children. The interesting thing is that children also have something to surprise you.

Add a little holiday to your life. As examples, prepare the favorite dish according to the new recipe, give each other anonymous gifts, spend a joint evening at home dancing or reading «Harry Potter» on roles. It is also possible to hold an exhibition: ask all family members to draw some drawings on the suggested topics and buy the liked exhibits from each other.

Let everyone invent or write the rituals they want to see in the family: daily, weekly, annual. Discuss and choose the ones that everyone likes, attract grandparents to the search and learn about the old family traditions from them .

Charity and volunteering will give a sense of unity to the loved ones. Hand over your useless items to the aid funds, make a monthly donation to an important project, take part in an environmental retreat, become the guardian of an animal at the zoo. Sharing your pet is also very close.

Here are some simple ways to make everyone feel better.

Write a complimentary postcard to another family member, thank him for the work he’s done this week and staple it on the fridge. Write down and collect funny phrases said by the household and collect an album with home recipes of the favorite dishes.

Keep up the fun seasonal traditions: roll in the fallen leaves in the autumn, play in the big snow in the winter, jump in the puddles in the spring, go on a picnic and stay in the tent in the summer.

Start smiling and hugging each other when you get home, saying nice things to each other over dinner. These little things are really important because they create a positive image of the home.

Simple family traditions should not be underestimated. They strengthen mutual understanding, give «islands of reliability» and a sense of family stability. Rituals help a child to see a parent not only as a strict educator, but also as a friend to spend time with.