10 Ways To Maximize Quality Family Time This Summer

It’s summer! And also school holidays!

We get so tied up with the daily hustle and bustle that sometimes we forget to be in the moment with the people closest to us, and before we know it, a season has passed.

This summer, make it a memorable one when you switch over to ‘family and loved ones’ mode and turn off your email notifications instead.

Here are 10 Ways To Maximize Quality Family Time This Summer

Go to the beach, playground or theme park. Go on heart pumping adrenaline rushing rides.
Bonding sessions – try something you have always wanted with your family. Sign up and go do it together.
Learn something together for the first time (beading, arts & crafts making, painting lessons, skating, baking courses).
Explore a new place or find new food to try (and, engage them in finding the new location you are going).
Do something that is an all-time favourites in the family (camping, fishing, swimming).
Solve a puzzle together.
Go picnic, do bbq (and kite-flying) together.
Ask them to teach you something, and vice versa.
Tell them your childhood stories.
Take a summer family portrait together. Not ‘selfies’. Proper photos and frame it up.

Family activities are often thought to be routine, but that’s only true when you let them be! With the above, you don’t even need to spend on staycations or expensive holidays to have fun.

How to make time

It’s hard to get time off especially when you are bogged down by work and other commitments. Our job pays our bills. The work we do could even be our passion, but the time and moments spent with people who matter to us overwrite them all. How about starting with the below steps?

Plan the activities with your family. There is nothing better than doing something that everyone is excited about instead of you picking one that you think they will like.
Take at least three days off your annual leave, if possible. Or take it just before or after a weekend so you have more off days to spend.
Ensure you have properly handed over your to-do lists to your colleague. Before you go on your leave, work as much as you need to complete your handover. Make sure you cover everything so you don’t get calls in between your holidays.
Activate your out-of-office notification. Or have the emails forwarded to your colleague who is taking over.
On your first day of leave, disconnect from media and technology. Better yet, go somewhere where wifi is barely existent. You’d be surprised that your children would be asking for it more than you.
And set off! Immerse in a fun and exciting summer with your family.

There are bound to be disagreements and hiccups along the way, but that’s what makes it fun and memorable! Take disagreements with a grain of salt and go ahead with what you have planned anyway.

If you have to divert from the original plan though, so be it.

Keep It Going

Once you have started this practice, don’t stop it at there. Here are some ways that you can start doing on a daily basis even after summer is over

Be present when you are at home. Practice silencing your phone or switching off for a few hours. Some things can wait, others can’t. You know which one can’t. Be at home when at home, not multi tasking nor thinking about work or to-do lists.
Pay attention and be attentive to your spouse and kids. Be fully engaged and listen to their daily happenings, be it at the park, shop or in school for that day. Share your day with them.
Play together, dine together. Shower your spouse and children with more attention than you pay to your client or employer, because they deserve more than them!
Work together. Do house work together, cook together, cook together, or help your child solve that difficult homework or Math problem. For all of a sudden, you might find yourself trying to solve a question more difficult than your work issue.
Read bed time stories to them. Accompany them to bed. Share your childhood story with them! Reconnect with your spouse at the end of the day.
Make time to get off from work earlier.

When you get older, would you remember the days when you sat in the same car with your spouse and kids but were busy thinking about something else? Would you remember what emails you were replying to when you think about the trips you’ve taken with your family, or the times when you had to rush a report telling your children to wait because you’re busy?

At the end of the day, it’s about who are with us on the whole journey and what makes you want to thrive and strive so hard. Definitely not your position in your company or the hours you lost on networking.

Make memories and build stronger bond with your loved ones.

This summer, make it the best one yet.

Featured photo credit: flickr.com via flickr.com