How To Make Time For Your Family When You Have A Busy Schedule

It’s no secret that life gets busy sometimes, especially with work, errands, and household chores. In fact, life can get busy for the entire family when you add school, other jobs, and extracurricular activities to the mix.

However, making time for your family is essential to creating a strong bond while ensuring everyone is doing okay. You never want to realize you’re growing distant from your family, nor do you want any loved ones to avoid talking to you about a problem because they’re worried about bothering you.

The good news is, there are several ways to make time for your family when you have a busy schedule.

Add Family Time To Your Planner

Start by setting aside time for your family by blocking out certain dates and times in your planner or on your calendar.

Use this time for family game nights, movie nights, or outings to a local park or restaurant. You can also hold family meetings to catch up and ensure everyone is doing well.

If you can designate more than one day a week to family time, you may decide to plan a fun activity on one day and hold a family meeting on the other. Otherwise, consider splitting the time up or only holding the meetings every other week.

Make The Most of Family Dinners

Family dinner is a great way to catch up with your family, so try to plan a few nights a week for everyone to eat dinner at home. If you can plan a family dinner every night, or at least five days a week? Even better.

You are using this time to catch up with your family, so be sure to enforce and follow a “no screen time” rule during dinner.

Additionally, you can get your children involved with cooking or setting the table to keep them off their devices while spending quality time with you. Another idea is to occasionally order takeout as a treat and a way to save time.

Squeeze In Time For Chats

Even on your busiest days, try to set aside at least several minutes to check in with each family member. You may find one of your loved ones needs to have an important talk with you.

Multitasking can also work on busier days because you are getting tasks done while still spending time with your loved ones. Examples include allowing your teenager to accompany you to the grocery store or asking your youngest to help with an easy chore.

Remember, even 10 to 30 minutes a day to check in with each family member is better than not checking in at all.

Set Morning and Nighttime Routines

Setting a morning and nighttime routine can give your family an idea of what to expect each day.

With a morning routine, you can enjoy breakfast with your family while going over plans for the day.

A nighttime routine allows you to enjoy dessert while talking about lighthearted topics. Of course, this also includes your younger children’s bedtime routine, such as a bedtime story and being tucked in.

There may be days when you’re not available both morning and night, so it’s important to find time for one or the other.

In addition, breakfast and dessert can also follow the “no screen time” rule.

Plan Special Activities For Everyone

When you block out time for your family every month, try to plan special activities for everyone. Depending on schedules, this can be once a week or once or twice a month.

Special activities should be different from your weekly movie nights or local park visits. Instead, these activities may include a beach, state park, zoo, or museum.

You can also look into seasonal or holiday-related activities, such as a trip to a pumpkin patch or an egg hunt.

What is so special about these activities? It gives everyone the chance to do something different and just enjoy one another’s company.

It Is Essential To Make Family Time A Priority

Whether you’re raising young children or tweens and teens, family time is essential regardless of your children’s ages.

Your family isn’t going to remember how productive you were on certain days. They’re going to remember the times you spent together and how much you were there for them.

I have previously published this story on another platform. You can find the link to the original version here: https://medium.com/@tammys_85/how-to-make-time-for-your-family-when-you-have-a-busy-schedule-97e5a683869a