Over the past two years, there hasn’t been much opportunity for your family’s generations to bond. It might even be the case that your younger family members have no memory of their grandparents apart from a voice over the phone or a face on a screen. For many, there has been no real bonding, and no real-time spent together in the same physical space. This is an issue, especially if you are in a tight-knit family community.
What Effects Has the Pandemic Had on Families?
The pandemic has brought many problems to families and has caused a lot of changes that have transformed once close and loving families into mere acquaintances. This can be something that you are all too aware of, and you can see everyone drifting apart with seemingly no way to stop it.
How Can You Make Things Better?
One of the positives is that many people can now see each other a little more, and restrictions are being lifted. This means you can bring your family closer together; you can feel a lot more relaxed and bring those bonds back to how they should be. Here are some ways that you can bring your family closer together and reunite after such a long time apart.
#1 Try Bonding Tactics at Your Next Family Gathering
Bonding tactics are easy to implement and can help everyone feel involved, which is very important for family reunions. There are going to be new people, new friendships, and potentially even some babies to welcome to the family. Bringing back traditions, remembering what you have lost, and celebrating those you have gained can be a great way to help your family come closer together. Here are some ways that you can help your family bond:
- Playing games can be a good way to bring your family together. You might feel that this is a little challenging, but there are games that everyone in the family can participate in, such as classics like cornhole. Cornhole is an easy game that can be played in many ways and can help bring families closer together. You can see more here regarding the best cornhole sets to buy to make that first game something to remember.
- Taking part in indoor activities together can also be good. Everyone helping with cooking, cleaning, and prepping games can be a great way to bond and enjoy each other’s company. Teamwork is important and is a great way to bring everyone together.
#2 Try Going Out Together as a Unit
Going out on day trips, even if it is just a trip to the park, can be a great way to help your family’s bond to grow and thrive. It can be a crucial way to help the members of your family get along, especially if some new additions are allowed to go and play and enjoy their time together over something all kids love to do.
It also gives the adults some time to sit aside and have a talk about everything else that has happened. This can provide good memories, lots of laughter, and more intimacy, which is important for you to rekindle relationships and have fun. Here are some ideas for days or evenings out that you can enjoy.
- BBQs, which can be hosted by a member of the family, and therefore very easy to arrange and organize
- A picnic at the park, the beach, or a local site with a lot of space for the children to play and the adults to relax
- Going to a museum, so the older generations can bond with the younger children through good educational memory
- Going out for dinner at a restaurant means that no one must cook.
#3 Traditions and Joint Interests
These can be things that bring your family together regardless and is a joint point of interest and passion for all. You might find that these are traditions or even something that can be entirely new to help bring newer family members into the activities. Here are some of the things that can be traditions or joint interests:
- Religion. Bringing everyone together through prayer and practice of religion can be a good way to help everyone together, new to the family or not. Sharing events such as Christmas, eating huge buffets during Ramadan, and bringing the family together to celebrate Makar Sankranti.
- Sport. If all of your family support a certain baseball team, sit around and watch some matches together, or even go out and see some live games.
