At the Dinner Table, Ditch the Electronic Devices in Favor of Family Games
Too often it seems that family dinners are missing one key component. Family. These days it is all to common to see those in attendance during mealtime either staring blankly at their food, engrossed in a prime time television program, or perhaps worst of all, tapping away at their smartphones or other handheld gaming devices.
Over time, these missed opportunities to connect with your family at the dinner table can have detrimental consequences for the cohesiveness and camaraderie of your nuclear family unit. It can take a concerted effort, but you can reinforce the importance of family dinners, re establishing healthy communication and fostering sensitivity and empathy for one another. Perhaps the most readily accessible and fun method of accomplishing this is through family dinner table games.
Ultimately, the most engaging games you play at the dinner table will undoubtedly be those you create, develop, and modify yourselves, since this process encourages overall family unity. That said, you will likely want to start with games with which everyone already has a certain degree of familiarity. For example, playing a modified, dinner table friendly version of charades can be a great way to get your loved ones out of their established comfort zone and get them in the habit expressing themselves with one another.
Another game that can nurture collaborative creativity is one in which you all tell a story, with each person adding to it one sentence at a time. As you go around in the circle and the story starts to take its wonderfully weird shape, it causes you to actively engage with your family members distinctive personalities, implicitly validating their thoughts and ideas. This will probably not be something that your family is consciously aware of while playing the game, but rather it is something that will just happen naturally as a result of the activity.
If you have questions or fun ideas for family dinner table games, be sure to leave them in the comments section below.
