Family Dinner Activity

Family time is so important for creating an atmosphere of warmth and love. Life can be hectic and pose a challenge for finding enough memory-making moments, but if you are intentional about making the time it will reap many wonderful rewards for you and your loved ones. Here is an idea for creating such times right around the dinner table:

1) Find an object that you can pass around the table (This could be a stuffed animal, a cell phone, or a spoon for example). The purpose for the object is that the person to start with holding the object first will be the only one talking and the other family members' job will be to become very good listeners until it is time for them to hold the object and do the talking.

2) Decide who will go first (this could be oldest to youngest, youngest to oldest or whoever is sitting at the head of the table and then go around the table clockwise for example) and this person will answer two questions to share with the family about their day:

- What was the best thing that happened today?

- What was the thing that happened today that made you the least happy?

3) That first person shares what their happiest and least happy thing was and then they pass the object to the next person who does the same until all the members of the family have shared. You do not have to rush this. If someone has a question about what was shared by one of the family members, then take your time so everyone feels heard and understood. Asking questions when someone shares a very hard or very exciting bit of news may be appropriate in some cases (i.e., When that happened, how did you feel about that?)

Moments like this create stronger bonds within the family amongst all the members. Research has shown that the hormones that are produced within the body when someone feels loved are the same hormones produced when someone is being listened to. Make sure you are listening. As members of the family get more used to doing this little activity, they also become more present in their own day to notice what is happening around them and also, they become more attuned to their own feelings throughout the day.