Getting Enough Face Time as a Family
Just coming off of Spring Break, and having our son home from college, we had a quality time of “Face-Time” as a family. We went on a little get-a-way to the high desert, where we ate good food (always!) and watched movies and the guys fly-fished. We relaxed and sat together and we even played our beloved family (obnoxious, yet fun) game of “Pit.”
My friend, Adelle, who has small children, recently wrote about her experience of getting enough family “face-time” …
We set aside the rest of the day. We planned to make dinner together as a family (tacos). We shopped for what we needed. We delegated jobs that the boys could do themselves (opening and heating a can of chili beans, setting the table, filling the drinks). And we sat together, made our tacos together, and we enjoyed some real face time. It wasn’t perfect. Taco filling was all over the dining room floor. There was still a lot of bickering over who got to do what.
But we were together, and we made a point to be together. That’s what was important. – Adelle, Ready … Go … Get Set blog
I’m thankful with teens now, that the bickering doesn’t take place. All those years of parenting and having to “work hard” to combat the sibling rivalry has paid off. The kids are growing up and it shows in the way they treat each other and … love each other.
But it still takes effort and work to get that family face-time in.
Do ever get that feeling in your gut that you “need” your family together?
What’s your favorite game to play as a family?
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
Pit is the best game ever. My siblings games so much and is so in your face about winning and losing (in a good way) that my husband feigns sleep whenever the cards/boards are broken out.
With the new job and very different hours I sometimes feel like we don’t get as much face time as we used to. Now my mornings with the monkeys are more important than before. That’s our chance to have in depth discussions, where at night we are all snuggled up watching classic movies together. I have never heard of Pit, so I need a lesson :) We love to play chess & make up scavenger hunts.
My “kids” are 40 and 42 now!!!!!!!!!!! How the heck did that happen????? When they were young, we played Uno, and I think Yahtzee was their favorite! I dio get much more “face time” with my daughter as she lives close by but my son lives in Fl and we are in Pa.:( But we ALWAYS had dinner together when they were young. “Fcae time” to me, is invaluable! Hope you are having a great weekend. XO, PInky
I always get that feeling. I’m a homebody and feel such comfort when we are all under the same roof, its comforting to me I guess.
Love the photos of your kids, they are stunning. At first I thought it was you in the first picture! :)
Your children are beautiful! Our family loves to play Settlers Of Catan, it takes a while but always leaves us laughing and conversing over the game board. I am going to have to put this game that you mention on my list of games to try, I have never heard of it. Thanks for sharing this peek into your family!
You’re right, it does require effort to have that face time as they get older, and certainly it pays off in so many ways. My daughters are 22 and 28, the youngest lives at home and is in her last year of college, the oldest lives 40 minutes away. My husband and I feel blessed that now and then when for no particular reason, and for all major holidays, our oldest packs a weekend bag and comes home for the weekend. The 4 of us love to play the dominoe game, “Mexican Train”. This game tradition started when my husband’s parents taught us about 10 years ago and we’ve been hooked ever since! Occasionally the competition gets crazier when they have their boyfriends over to join in. When we take a break from dominoes though, we play a hysterical game my youngest learned in college, called “Paper Telephone”. A spin off the old game we played as kids, where you whisper in someone’s ear next to you, what the person before you said…. This updated version involves everyone starting with a small stack of stapled papers and pencil. Each person in the group starts out writing a sentence or phrase, and its then passed to the person on the left. It continues where you then draw on the next sheet, what the last person wrote. This continues until each person in the group has both written and drawn for everyone in the group and you collect the packet of paper that you originally wrote on to begin with. Its hysterical to then show each packet- how everyone drew what they saw, or misinterpreted what was drawn! My husband loves this game and is like one of the kids when they come home, running around gathering all of the supplies to play. The girls get a kick of it, eyes rolling, “Here comes Dad….paper telephone again!!!” They wouldn’t trade it for anything. Priceless.
Our favorite family game is — PIT! The cousin’s enjoy playing it together and have since they were little kids. It is such a wonderfully noisy game!
Ok first of all how is it I have never heard of this game? Yes I revel in the moments and times when we are all under one roof. It is like when they were all younger. I miss those days sometimes yet know all this growing up is suppose to happen in them and in me……sometimes I just want to “stop the train and get off”.
Our favorite game would have to be Scrabble as a family. We pair up in twos and it really gets competitive. We are all terrible spellers so it does get pretty funny.
Thanks Sandy….living this chapter alongside of you cherishing the time we all have with one another.
Kindest regards,
bâ€
@madreminutes
We play Pit too!!! But our favorite right now is Settlers of Catan. I’m not sure I notice the need for Face-Time so much as others because my girls homeschool so I spend a lot of face time with them. As a whole family though…girls, hubby and I, yes, because sometimes those times seem more sporadic because it seems like we’re always running here and there! I actually just sent hubby an e-mail about this very thing for this weekend.
And I agree…your kids are beautiful!!
Oh we love PIT! Always has and probably always will remind me of my grandma, she just turned 95 and still loves playing it! I so enjoy this season of all my childrens ages right now too. They are all very close and have really turned into each others best friends. My Spring break with the kids was a real blessing as they all helped me this last week serve the homeless that I serve at every week night…..blessed my heart to no end to see their selflessness and give to others during their down time during their Spring break. Such a joy and blessing to have Godly children. And yes it was worth all those years of sometimes tough parenting days.
Blessings and Happy Spring! =O)
I LOVE “Pit!” so much fun. I remember playing games with my older brother – when we weren’t bickering! We are now such good friends – thanks for the reminder that these days of hard work really do pay off.
Uniquely, we’ll be down one kid tonight and tomorrow. Our youngest is going to get some “face-time” with his grandpa, which he’s never had before (alone), and we get to just be three again for Scooby’s first baseball game tomorrow. We’re going to watch “Field of Dreams” tonight and eat pizza in front of the TV – and I’m really looking forward to it!
Thanks for the shout out, Sandy! And tomorrow afternoon…compost bins! Woot!
We get a lot of face time- it’s one of the reasons we chose to home school, and we tell our kids all of the time that they WILL be friends! :) Just recently- as in the past month- all of us can play Uno together and it’s been a blast! We’re going to get a lot of van time together in a few weeks- we’re heading west to Garmisch, Germany via L’viv, Krakow, and Vienna- can’t wait!
Oh my word, Sandy, your kids are so beautiful! haha I mean seriously, they’re all magazine-worthy! You are so right about the years of bickering leading to friendships. My sister and I are almost 5 years apart and we fought all the time. Now we are good friends and I wouldn’t trade her for the world. It just took about 10 or so years. ;)