The next time one of your loved ones nags at you about spending time with family, you may want to take the grumbling seriously.

Studies prove that you should, for many reasons. Finding quality time in this busy day and age is a challenge, but not impossible. There are a few ways you can set it aside for your loved one without feeling the stretch.

Studies Show that Spending Time with Family is Important

Research has shown that family time has profound benefits.

Six years of research compiled by scientists at the University Of California proves that loneliness predicts death. The study focused on 1600 elderly participants. It revealed that of the seniors who died, 14% had regular visitors. In contrast, 23% had no family or friends who came by to see them.

In general, elderly persons are more likely than young ones to place importance on relationships. They are also more tolerant of faults in their family members because they do not like being alone.

Reasons Spending Time With Family is Important

6 Reasons Spending Time With Family is Important

Why is there so much stress on being with loved ones? Besides lengthening lives, spending time with family has other benefits.

1. Builds Self-Esteem

First of all, children who spend quality time with their loved ones have self-confidence. They are more sociable because they sense that their parents value them. Also, kids with self-esteem find it easy to build relationships.

2. Creates bonds

Spending time with family strengthens family ties. Also, families who enjoy group activities will develop strong relationships and handle stressful situations with ease.

In this busy day and age, it is a luxury for parents to spend time with their children. Making time for the family will allow you to teach your kids valuable life lessons like kindness and fairness.

3. Nurtures positive behaviors

Consequently, kids will start to develop positive behaviors because loved ones influence them. A 2012 study reflected that children who ate regular meals with their families performed better in school. Furthermore, adolescents who spent more time with their parents tended not to abuse alcohol.

If you wish to see positivism in action, refer to this example.

A mother observed that her teenage daughters were spending less time at home. She conducted an experiment and started baking cookies for them when they returned from school.



The girls ignored the cookies at first. As time went by, they began to stop at the kitchen table and grab cookies from the plate. Eventually, they sat down for tea and began to have meaningful conversations with her.

4. Creates memories

Another reason for having family time is to make memories. Children share more about their lives in these situations that if you ask them ‘What happened in school today?

5. Healthy lifestyle

Also, your lifestyle will become healthier than before. Family members will remind you to have nutritious meals.

6. Relieves stress

Finally, chatting with your loved ones will help to reduce your stress. Talking about worries eases it.

Ways to spend time with your family without feeling stretched

With everyone having busy schedules, spending time together as a family is a stretch. The good news is that there are ways to make it less burdensome and more pleasurable.

1. Spend time with your children

First of all, make it a point to spend time with your kids. You do not need to go out of your way. Sit down for dinner so you can have family conversations. Going out with them for walks after dinner will allow you to teach them life lessons.

Children love fixing broken items. These may seem like tedious tasks, but curious kids love them. They want to see what lies under the faulty kitchen sink.

You can also read together with your kids. Besides improving their language skills, you can use the time to share sound values with them.

Another way to spend time with children is to leave messages for them. Although you may not have the chance to say hello, they will get pleasant surprises from your texts.

2. Get in touch with your teenagers

Growing teens often feel that their parents step over their boundaries. But all is not lost.

Take the time to talk to your teenagers while driving them to school. It is convenient and allows them to share the goings-on in their lives. Another way to connect with them is through social media.

Have chats with them over Whatsapp and step into their lives. It is the way they make sense of the modern world around them.

Teens may go through growing pains and are a handful. That said, they love to volunteer. Getting them to do volunteer work allows them to make a difference. It also lets you spend quality time with them.

3. Remember your parents

As said before, elderly parents feel lonely. If you do not live with your parents, give them a call. Doing this takes no time at all. It is always special for a parent to get a call from a child.

Also, have a meal with them at least once a week. Cook family meals together. You will learn what makes a dish special for the family.

4. Make time for your spouse

Of course, your spouse is the most important person in your life. Keep in touch with him or her with instant messages throughout the day and turn your mobile phone off when you are alone. You can connect in no time at all.

Also, make an effort to start the day together. Even if it is a quick cup of coffee, breakfast is an excellent time to connect.

Another great way to spend time with your spouse without taxing yourselves is to exercise together. Having a nightly jog or walking in the park is a wonderful way to spend quality time with your significant other.

5. Stay in touch with your relatives

Remember the aunts and uncles who may annoy you? Spending time with them may help you more than you realize. But you do not have to stress yourself over connecting with them.

Creating a group chat on Facebook or Whatsapp will allow you to keep in touch with everyone. With a group chat, you only need to reach out to them once when organizing functions. Keep track of special events like birthdays or anniversaries.

Spending time with family is important because it may benefit each member in more ways than you realize. If you have suggestions, do leave them in the comments!

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This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. gabrielle coady

    would you be able to explain a reason why it is not beneficial to spend more time with your family. i just need this for a project and i though it would be best to ask you

    1. Michelle L

      Hi,

      This question is great! Surprisingly, there are. If you have family members who don’t understand boundaries, it’s helpful to distance yourself from them for a while to show them that you need your space. Also, it’s not good to spend time with family members who are toxic. That increases the negativity in yourself.

  2. Jessica Simons

    A great post for all families. With most of our time spent staring at the screen of a smartphone or laptop, now, more than ever before, we need to take time out to bond with our loved ones. One thing that I’ve found to be a great way to spend quality time is with escape games. You can actually book these games and take your family out for a whole day of fun and games. And, you can choose the game based on the ages of your children too or their interests.

  3. dory

    My problem is that we are all as a family I don’t spend much quality time, I keep busy by doing other things and I don’t understand why. I know how important it is to spend quality time… why could this be happening?

  4. Ellen H.

    It did catch my attention when you said that you can strengthen your family ties and develop a strong family relationship when you spend time with your family. This is something that I will make sure to remember because my family can’t seem to easily solve a family problem since we lost our unique bond with each other. I want us to bring back our good family relationship, so I’ll be sure to find a family fun center where we can bond.

  5. Ellen H.

    You got my attention when you said that spending time with your family can relieve stress because chatting with them can ease your worries. My husband and I noticed that we no longer spend quality time with our children. We have been stressed these past few days because of some personal issues, so we’ll make sure to find an event summit place where we can bond and talk to them for hours.

  6. kdr32hn

    AYEEEEEEE THANKS I FINISHED MY PROJECT

  7. Sharon Wilson-Smith

    I like that you said that you can actually consider walking in the park with your husband if you want to have a great time with your spouse. My husband and I are actually looking for ways to spend time with our children. Due to our work schedule, we don’t often spend time with them, and we’re afraid of our work to cause conflicts in the family. I will try to find a family fun center that we can go to.

    1. Michelle L

      Hi Sharon, glad that you found this relevant! It’s important to spend quality time with your spouse this way. Hi

  8. Maik Taiser

    Off course it is, spending time with family is really important. It is also important to show them that you care for them.Now-a-days everyone is busy with their schedule. No one has time to think about others.

  9. Luke Smith

    I love that you pointed out how spending time with your family could strengthen family ties. My family is thinking of arranging weekly family activities so we could bond and have fun. Our family likes baseball so we’re thinking of watching some games live.

  10. Luke Smith

    I like that you mentioned how spending time with your family would strengthen family ties. We recently got a lot of free time, so I am thinking of going out with my family to have fun next week. I heard holiday light shows are going to start soon so we should probably try watching one.

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