Family Hobbies: How To Play Together & Create A Lifetime Bond At The Same Time

One of the best ways to strengthen family love is through friendship. And, one of the best ways to build friendship is through good old-fashioned play. Now, of course, this may require some cozy conversation over the dinner table to remember what good old-fashioned fun was really like. But well worth the effort, according to a recent study that showed a strong correlation between love and play. Families who bonded through shared recreational activities rated their family relationship satisfaction significantly higher than families who did not make the time to keep their feelings of being "best friends" alive. Furthermore, the study also revealed that this bond of friendship helped families weather both everyday stresses as well as unexpected life changing events with greater resiliency and less conflict.nnHow to Turn Your Family -- Even Fighting Brothers & Sisters -- into Best Friends Looking back, I now realize that one of the smartest things my husband ever did was getting our children and myself involved in his hobbies. Fortunately, this occurred after he converted his love of drag racing into a safer expression of the sport - RC (radio-controlled nitro racing). So now instead of squabbling over how much he's spending on his hobby, I'm behind him 100 percent because "racing" is no longer something he goes off and does by himself. We do it together as a family! We. Race. We take excursions and explore new places with our radio-controlled toys. There's nothing like crunching through the leaves and fallen pine needles on a trail you newly discovered. And although RC may not fit the bill for every family, it's a great example of how to reframe the experience of a solo sport that otherwise would commonly cause resentment in a family relationship. nn3 Top Tips to Reframing the Solo Sport Experience to Keep Your Family Relationship Growing Strongnn1. Make it a "no scoreboard zone." -- I'm sure there are myriad permutations and computations that a family could come up with so they could pursue a hobby or sport together. And it doesn't matter whether you're good at it or not. The objective of playing together is to just have fun. nn2. Create an evening where you make a game out of talking to your spouse about some of your favorite childhood activities. Take turns describing how excited you felt every time you had a chance to play. Now see if you can come up with a family version that expresses similar qualities. If nothing strikes you, let loose and play "let's pretend" and make up an activity of your own.nn3. Create an exciting atmosphere. RC is our thing because I enjoy watching the excitement on the faces of both my husband and my children. It's endearing to see "the child" in the person you love. And most importantly, RC let's me get closer to them. Being inside the same world together creates a camaraderie that isn't possible when you just go out to the movies. Spending time with family is important. We often get so wrapped up in the importance of money or other things in life that we sometimes forget about the most important little things. How many times can we as adults remember when our parents or perhaps relatives were too busy to spend time with us? We always remember those times during our childhood. Perhaps it made you sad from time to time. What can we do about it? We can make sure we don't make the same mistake with our own families. Follow my advice and you will create a memorable lifetime bond with your spouse and your children.