Making time for family fun

Like most families, we look for fun local events to go to, attend a lot of minor league sports, and play a lot around the house. What we try to do different, however, is find ways to have fun during some of the un-fun time. When I get home from work I only have a few hours with the kids before bed time and there are always chores to be done. Sometimes making family time means being creative with the chores and getting the kids involved.  My best example is grocery shopping, which a lot of people hate doing with the kids, but for me it can be a lot of fun. The key is going as a family during off hours. We have a great grocery store, Wegmans, that has a cafe so we always make our trip at night and have dinner first. The kids (and us) love the food so that gets our trip of to a good start. From there we always get 2 carts. Lately I’ve been taking both boys in my cart while Heather and Jamie take the other. Having 2 brothers under the age of 5 in the same cart can be challenging so to ensure success (and sanity) I make up games for us.

1. Sneak up on mom - The boys keep a look out for Heather and whoever spots her first whispers “Code Red”. This puts us into stealth mode and we try to sneak up on her.
2. Donuts! Not the kind you eat, but the kind that gives dad a workout when I spin the cart in tight circles. The boys are always asking me to do a donut, but the rule is they have to keep hands in the cart and behave to earn one. This makes it a fun reward. Just watch out for those displays and other shoppers.
3. Let the kids “drive”. They’ll each hold a box of food or something and one will be the steering wheel and the other one will control the gas and brake pedals.
4. Food castle - This is easier with only one kid in the cart, but when I’m getting a lot of boxes and cans they like to stack them into towers.
5. Follow the leader - Let the kids tell you where things are. This is a new one I’ve been doing with Ethan. He has a great memory and usually can get me to the right place, but often via a creative route through the store. Sure it means some extra walking, but its fun watching both boys trying to guide us through the grocery store maze.

To cap off our trip, I put the boys to work helping me unload the groceries. They like showing off their muscles by carrying the big boxes of diapers, detergent, or other large items.

We try to apply the same strategy to everything we do to make what might be a mundane trip into quality family time. I find the best strategy for avoiding a stressful situation is not to focus on mitigating the stress, but to focus on making thing fun. A pro-active donut with the shopping cart might make you feel silly, but I’d take that over fighting and whining any day.

This post is brought to you in conjunction with Parent Bloggers Network & EA’s Wii-Boogie, a family gaming experience. Shake it. Sing it. Create it.