My friend Ashleigh has a great blog, Capture Sunshine, about all of the fun things to do in Arizona. Last month she asked me to write a special Mother’s Day post about how to have fun with your family. I loved thinking about what helps me play and have a good time with my kids. And who doesn’t want to have more fun in their family time?! So here it is, not just for moms, but all parents…
5 Ways to Have More Fun With Your Family
1. Be Silly
There is something so wonderful about being silly. When you are willing to let your hair down, it helps everybody feel more comfortable and become willing to have fun themselves. One of my favorite memories growing up was a time when my mom turned on some music and started singing into her curling iron. She was dancing around and being so embarrassing, but after a minute I thought I’d join in and so did my siblings. Pretty soon we had gone through a whole tape (how odd that my kids won’t know what a tape is!) and we had been dancing and singing into our fake microphones for an hour. It was so much fun and so simple. All it took was a silly mom and we all had a blast and a great memory!
2. Get Messy
This is probably the hardest one for me. I have a little bit of an OCD tendency and I sometimes find myself a little Shmegal-like in the conversation that goes on in my head over this subject. “Put that activity back, that’s the messiest thing they could do.” “But they’ll have so much fun.” “Stop him now and there won’t be a mess.” “But they love getting messy.” “There’s flour all over the floor! Ahhh! You should have just gotten out a puzzle!” Hopefully you caught a glimpse of my inner battle, but luckily I have learned that it can be a blast to get messy AND you can always clean up later. I saw a cartoon a little while ago that had a picture of a messy room with the caption: “What mom sees.” Then, there was a picture of a space station with rockets and astronauts with the caption: “What the kids see.” As I watch my son, I find that this is totally true. When I let him get messy, his imagination runs wild. Getting messy together always creates lots of laughs and lots of fun! If you’re not so worried about a mess, your kids can help you cook dinner, do your hair in funny ways, have a food fight, and tons of other things that can make an ordinary activity fun! Jump on over here for more great messy game ideas!
