Bonding activities for parents and children
Family,  Parenting

Fun Family Bonding Activities For Parents And Children

July 2, 2020 / 36 Comments
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If there was ever a time to get into some bonding activities for parents and children, it would be now.

I grew up in a close-knit family.

Some would even say that I was blessed to live in a two-parent household in which both of my parents are still married and for the most part seem happily married.

My fiancé also comes from a two-parent household in which both of his parents seem for the most part happily married.

However, for a lot of the people we know, this is not the case.

The divorce rate is at an all-time high and I will be curious to know what it will look like post-pandemic since we are stuck in the house together.

If you didn’t REALLY get to know your partner and kids during this pandemic, then you didn’t quarantine right.

Even though this virus was unexpected and no one saw this year going like this, it has surprisingly brought many families closer together.

In fact, Huggable conducted a survey with 538 mothers with children 3 years and younger and found some amazing results.

They found that not only were parents spending more time with their children because of COVID, but they also reported feeling closer to them. Other results found:

If you are interested in that survey and would love to see more of the results, you can find it here.

With all of this time in the house, this is the perfect time to start doing some family bonding activities that not only create memories that we will all cherish but bring us all closer together.

Here I will be discussing some fun family bonding activities for parents and children.

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Bonding activities for parents and children

The Importance Of Family Bonding

So before I get into those fun bonding activities for parents and children, let’s talk about the importance of bonding as a family.

If you have read about me on here, then you know that I have an educational background in marriage and family therapy and have worked with quite a few families.

In my work, I have noticed how important strong family bonds are.

Alot of the miscommunication within homes usually boils down to how the parents and children communicate with one another.

If a parent and child relationship is strong, respectful, and open, you will usually see a decrease in risky behavior because the child trust what the parent has to say about it.

This does not mean that the child won’t participate in behaviors that the parents don’t like, but that the child will likely make better decisions amongst the bad ones.

For example, if you have an teenager that decides to drink knowing that they underage, but then making the decision not to drive or get in the vehicle with someone who has been drinking.

You can be upset about the drinking behavior, but praise your teen for not getting behind the wheel.

Kids are going to make mistakes and take risks, because that is what kids do.

But the last thing any parent wants is their child taking a life-threatening or life-alternating risk that could change their lives for the worst.

This is why it is so important to have strong family relationships and you have to start early.

By starting early, you are creating a foundation and setting the tone for how your family functions.

With that being said, let’s get in some fun family bonding activities that can help improve those relationships between parents and children.

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Fun Family Bonding Activities For Parents And Children

Family Dinner Night

Can you really mention family bonding activities without mentioning family dinner nights?

This is the epitome of family bonding.

As adults, we go on dates and get to know each other by eating dinner together, so why couldn’t this apply to families as well?

I know many people like to look at family dinners as old-fashioned in this day and age, but it doesn’t have to be.

When I was a kid, we used to have dinner at the table every weekday night.

And on the weekends, we might get the chance to eat out at a restaurant, but even then, we still ate together as a family.

At dinner is where we find out how our days at school and work went.

In fact, this might have been the only time we could all sit down and have an actual face-to-face conversation with one another the entire day.

We would have some of the best laughs at the dinner table and I can still recall some of those conversations today.

I know that it is not feasible to have a family dinner every night and we don’t either.

And believe me when I say that this is really hard to do with a loud and messy toddler.

But we do try to have dinner as a family a couple of times a week to get her used to the idea of sitting together at the table.

Family Movie Night

Movie nights are great bonding activities for parents and children.

And there are so many streaming services now that this will be relatively easy to do.

When I was younger, we would go to the movie theater as a family to go see the latest kid movie and have the best time.

If you are up for it, I would highly recommend going to the theater as a family for that type of experience.

But if you are like us and have a smaller kid in tow or don’t care for the movie theater prices, then this is best to do at home.

Our movie nights are usually on Friday nights and we like to order pizza and pop some popcorn.

We all sit in the living room together and attempt to get through a movie together as a family.

I have to say attempt because once again, I am dealing with a toddler who doesn’t like to be still for more than 5 minutes.

As she gets older, this will be a lot easy to do and an activity that we can all look forward to.

Baking Together

Did any of you all own an Easy Bake Oven when you were younger?

I did and you might as well have called me Jass the Baker because I was always whipping up those small cakes and baking cookies.

I loved baking as a kid and thought it was so cool to make cupcakes and cakes.

If your kids are super interested in what you are doing in the kitchen, then this is a great activity to do together.

Baking is a little easier to do with younger kids because the preparation mostly requires mixing things together and waiting for it to bake in the oven.

My daughter is a little too young to help but she loves to watch and do as much as she can.

She does have a little play kitchen that she has to pretend with and it makes her feel like she is baking.

This is the closest we get to baking together for now until we can really do it together once she is older.

Crafting/Creating Together

This is another creative family bonding activity for parents and children.

Crafts are such a great activity that involves creative thinking as well as using your hands to put together whatever is in your head.

When I was a young girl, I used to have a craft subscription box delivered once a month to the house and I absolutely loved it.

It was something to look forward and I was so excited to see what I could make each month.

If you are looking for a cheap subscription service that you can do with your little ones, a great program to go with is Abundant Play.

Abundant Play is a monthly digital activity book subscription filled with activities, printables, children’s songs, and other fun things for young children up to the age of 5.

It has become something that my daughter and I both look forward to because we get one on one time playing and learning with our monthly activities.

And it is only $9 a month, but if you use the coupon code JASS, you can get $8 off your first month.

I have more activities that you can do with young children through the link below if you are looking for more creative ideas.

Have Family Meetings

A family shouldn’t have to come together for only the bad things that happen.

We are family.

And should be able to come together because we are just that.

We should be able to talk about the good and the bad so we can work through it all together as a family.

If you don’t want to call them meetings because that sounds so formal, then call them something that sounds a little more inviting.

Call them family pow-wows or whatever gets the point across that this is a good time to come together and bond as a family.

Having family dinner nights can easily set up these times to have these family meetings so you can share the latest that has been happening with you.

That is definitely a form of having a family meeting.

But another way is just literally just sitting around and having an open discussion.

And the best part of family meetings is that they can continue into adulthood.

I’m grown and no longer at home and we all still call one another and talk for hours sometimes.

With the current situation and state of the world, technology has even allowed us to see one another as well during our family meetings.

Seasonal Outings

I know that the outside world is a little crazy right now, but hopefully, once everything starts to die down we can venture out more.

And you should definitely go out and venture out as a family.

Some families do not have the luxury of being able to take nice family vacations and that is ok.

If you are able to take those nice, beachy vacations then have at it.

We were blessed to take a summer family vacation every year and even a spring break one sometimes.

I also want to be able to take my daughter on those nice summer vacations one day, but for now, we are doing what I call seasonal outings.

If you are wondering what I mean by seasonal outings, then it means just that.

We participate in seasonal events that only take place during certain seasons.

For example:

  • Spring: Going fishing and kite flying
  • Summer: Visiting an amusement and water park
  • Fall: Going to the pumpkin patch and hayrides
  • Winter: Looking at all the holiday lights and going ice skating

You can obviously do whatever you want, but these are the family bonding activities that we have decided to do.

And I must say it has been fun!

It gives us all something to look forward and we get to create a family tradition that we get to do every year.

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Your Turn

And those are all of the fun family bonding activities that we do as a family. Now, I want to hear from you all. What are some fun bonding activities for parents and children that you would add to this list? Let me know in the comments below and while you are still here, check out my previous blog post below. Until next time!

Love,

Just Jass

Bonding activities for parents and children

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Hi! I'm Jasmyn or "Jas" as everyone likes to call me! I'm a stay-at-home girl momma to 2 beautiful little girls and married to my wonderful husband whom I have been with for 10 years! I'm a book and tea lover and when I'm not working on my blog, you can find me sharing bits and pieces of our lives on Instagram or me strolling down the aisles of Target and DSW! I'm the mama blogger behind the blog, Just Jass, where I offer parenting advice, productivity tips, and positive mental health habits from my perspective as mama of 2. Why don't you join me and my Jassy Fam as we navigate this thing called "mom-life" together!

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