When it comes to household chores, there is no shortage of things that need to be accomplished. Between preparing meals, helping kids with homework, tackling the laundry and grocery shopping, making lunches, and home maintenance, parents often have difficulty carving out time to spend doing fun family activities.
Often parents are forced to choose between the actions that keep the household in order and time spent with the kids they love. In fact, a recent study found that 33 percent of all parents don’t feel they spend enough time with their children.
The study concluded that males and females spend an equal amount of their time “working” on chores at home and at the office earning a paycheck.
Even though men tend to spend more time outside of the home and women spend more time than men on household chores and childcare, according to the survey, that doesn’t mean one gender has an advantage when it comes to making time to be together as a family. Both parents often need to get creative to find ways to complete the tasks that keep the household functioning while carving out that vital family time.
One creative way to spend more time with your kids is to include them in the family’s chores. Even young children can help out at home, doing age-appropriate tasks such as helping to sort the laundry, putting toys away, and setting the table. While you may not complete errands as quickly with the kids in tow, they love to help out and they can learn valuable life skills while spending time with you.
Another creative way to spend more time with the kids is to engage their creative side and include them in home DIY projects. A home improvement project can be a wonderful way to involve everyone while working towards a goal that the whole family can be proud of. For example, you can create the perfect family living space using input from even the youngest family members.
Decorating and remodeling can be a family affair. Think about DIY ideas that will include elements appropriate for every family member, such as revamping your central living space using a family-centered theme that incorporates a few of each member’s likes and hobbies. Finding and decorating bins to organize coloring and craft items may inspire a family art project, and working on a television or gaming center together for movie night can encourage family fun indoors.
You can also consider a redecorating project for what is often the heart of the home – the kitchen. Choose décor inspired by an activity that the family enjoys doing together, such as traveling, making homemade pizzas, creating gifts for charity or a needy neighbor, or holding a family ‘bake-off” inspired by the chefs at your favorite restaurant.
Getting organized is another DIY project in which the whole family can take part. Enlist the kids’ help to tidy up a certain area each day and create a job or mission calendar that lists each person’s assignments and the due date. Use colorful stickers to track progress and consider a reward system for consistency and completion. The tasks can be as simple as watering the plants and can include weekly and monthly posts, such as inspecting the home’s exterior, including siding and gutters, for visible imperfections and structural issues that may indicate that repair is necessary.”
Spending more time with your family is possible and it doesn’t have to be complicated or come at the expense of your ‘to do’ list. With a bit of creativity, you can carve out more time for family activities while completing chores and projects around the house. The key is to allow your intuition to be the guide and strive to create projects that allow everyone in the family to participate in some way.
Make it easy on yourself and find the grace in doing less. As you loosen your grip on the preconceived notion of what you must accomplish on a daily basis, you may find additional DIY projects appropriate for the whole family. Why not let the laundry pile up for once and enjoy a movie together in the living room you designed as a group? You’ll create priceless memories spending valuable together time as a family that will ultimately be more rewarding than all the clean laundry in the world.
