How much part does conversation play in your family life?

It is through communication that we convey our thoughts, feelings, and connection to one another. That is why conversation is a fundamental part of every relationship, despite how stressful daily routine can make us forget its importance for family wellness. 

 

We all are overworked and over-committed.

In the morning, not much is said while you hurry up to work, and your children are rushed through their breakfast. The same in the afternoon, when you have to pick up children from sports or music lessons after a long day at the office. Or in the evening, while you have to do the last household chores or prepare dinner.

But… when do you play with your kids? Or talk with them? 

You have to take care of your children, but you do not have the time to talk with them, as if there were a cosmic conspiracy that prevents you from finding the time to stay together as a family.

Communication is one of the basic parameters to measure family health. Understanding it will help you realize that while sweeping is important to maintain a clean house, it is not the wisest thing to do in the long run. Technology makes things more complicated because it may steal the last precious time left. 

Do you know that the quality of family interactions is correlated with how satisfied children are outside the family? Poor communication patterns often increase family conflict and reduce emotional bonds. These weak patterns could be duplicated at school and in other social environments.

So, your family communication style sets the tone for how family members interact with the rest of society.

Have in mind that a solid family relationship consists of warm, loving and responsive interactions. Good family habits allow children to feel loved and secure for duplicating this scheme in their whole social life.

It is time to turn off your digital devices and start spending more time with kids, trying to set the healthy conversation up. To get this goal, you can play with your kids, for example, because play is a precious occasion to improve family communication.

Remind it and follow these few tips to start establishing good communication habits!

 

1.Try to schedule your family life for creating an opportunity to stay together

Selecting some quality time to spend together gives everyone a chance to enjoy each others company and know the family member deeply. In case of lack of time, exploit every opportunity!

If you find yourself in the car running from place to place, make a point to turn the radio and the cell phone off and use that opportunity to talk about the activities of the day.

If possible, eat together, opting to spend quality time around the table. Eating together teaches you how to communicate with your kids. Insisting on sharing family meals creates rituals and routines that kids come to expect and look forward to. If possible, eliminate tech distractions and start talking about your day and moods. Once your children realize that they are more important to you than the news or whoever is on the phone, they will readily share their thoughts with you.

Moreover, through sharing meals, children can learn good social manners and healthy eating habits.

It facilitates the acquisition of listening skills, developing emotional intelligence and abilities such as empathy, improving the possibility for kids to build sane social relationships. 

If you want to know how important eating together is, you’d better read also the post The Importance of Sharing Meals in Family.

Cooking together is another family biggest activity to do. Children love to be asked to help in the kitchen because they can get creative and inspired.

When children help you to prepare the dinner, manipulating ingredients, they relax their mind and this help them to feel confident for starting to talk about their thoughts and sensations. Don’t forget to share your confidence as well to return the favor. Cooking together, children also learn to become more independent in the future.

You can make the situation more entertaining, wearing the chef uniform or letting children choose the menu, for better involving them and create a new family ritual.

This example allows us to connect with other important tool for learning to communicate as a family: role play!

 

2.Play with your children for deepening mutual knowledge 

Play with your kids to find the right key to communicate with them. Try to fit at least thirty minutes of your time within your kids’ playtime.

Children love to simulate adult behaviours, and role-play helps them grow in several and important ways. On the other hand, as a parent, it allows you to spend quality time with children. When sharing playtime with your kids, you show your dedication to them and demonstrate that they are really important to you. In addition, by playing your roles, the empathy among you and your kids will increase. The premise for the best confidences and conversations is settled!

Hape loves Role Play. The reason why you can find a lot of examples of toys for playing together. You can play as the assistant of the most famous chef in the city, trying to discover the secret of dishes they cook in the Deluxe Kitchen. You have to exchange lots of confidence to reach this goal! 

Add realistic level to the role play with the set of fruit, vegetable and salad playset and tell your children how much you like cooking while you are preparing a Cesar salad!

“Are you in the mood for a pizza?” Or “what are your favourite ingredients for seasoning?”. Ask your little ones and look how this could be a great occasion to have some good chat while you are slicing the pizza you have prepared together.

 

You can also share some manual activities with kids. They love expressing themselves through art and crafts. Take part in the activity, talk about the pleasure of doing it, or ask them if something funny or annoying happened during the day. If you want an idea of manual work to do with kids, you can download our papercraft activity to print, cut, assemble, colour and play, for having hours of fun and chat with your children.

Maintaining positive communication benefits the family in so many ways. Children learn how to communicate and feel comfortable sharing their problems or thoughts. Parents learn more about their children’s inner world.

If good family communication improves the quality of relationships, then, beyond the family home, why not start talking right away? Or better… why not start playing?