How often do you, as a family, have downtime? Those moments when you have no commitments, nowhere to go, and nothing major to do, just time to stop and relax. If you’re finding that you don’t have this as a family, then you need to make it a priority. Everyone, regardless of age and lifestyle, needs downtime. Without it, you run the risk of burnout, which can lead to stress, poor mental health, and reduced physical capabilities.
Even children can be at risk of burnout if you don’t ensure they have that time to rest and recuperate from their lives, especially if they have other commitments outside of education, such as sporting clubs or jobs.
This post suggests some fun downtime activities you can do as a family to help you regain your equilibrium. These activities could include going for a walk, playing games, watching a movie, creating a den, or introducing quiet time into your routine. Let’s take a look.
Go for a Walk
Getting outside into nature and going for a walk can be massively beneficial. Try to find somewhere away from city life if you can; head off to the coast or a national park if possible, and take some time to go for a walk in nature to facilitate relaxation. It doesn’t need to have a set beginning and end; it doesn’t need to be competitive or have to reach a certain destination. The fact of being out and about and in nature can be beneficial on its own. Walking is just a great stress-relieving activity to do.
Play Games
Whether you’re a family that loves video games or board games, you need to get playing together to enjoy some R&R. You can play multiplayer games against each other digitally or around a board game (even healthy competition playing Monopoly counts!).
You can pull up games like wordle to put your known legend skills to the test for fun and education rolled into one, or you can even make up your own family games if you wish.
Watch a Movie
A movie night can be the perfect way to get some time into your day. Finding something to appease everyone, however, is probably not going to be so easy. However, you don’t actually need to watch the movie. The key is to provide a time and space to stop and relax.
So whether you are falling asleep after spending an hour trying to find something to watch, you have arts and crafts for little ones to do while the movie is on, or you allow your teens to use their devices, getting people together to provide a safe space to decompress and relax is paramount even more so that is actually watching the film.
Create A Den
This one might be a bit harder to convince older kids or teens to engage with you on, but for those with younger kids, creating a fort or a den can be the perfect fun activity that allows you time to connect with each other and have a space to chill out too. Because once you have created the perfect den, you can use it to read, play games, watch a movie, or even nap. Its presence can be a signal that it’s time to stop and slow down, and this fun activity can precede the chill-out time and give you a point of reference for downtime to be in full force.
Quiet Time
Introducing quiet time can be the perfect way to get more downtime into your day or week. You don’t even need to be together in the same room for this. You can individually take part in activities that are done in silence or solitude. You can read separately, listen to music on headphones, watch shows, do some arts and crafts, or play games on devices as long as there is no noise and you are simply relaxing while doing so. This timeout from noise and chaos can be the perfect way to get everyone to slow down and rest, even if it’s just for a short while.
These days, lives are becoming increasingly busier. You need ways you can grind life to a halt and allow your family the opportunity to stop and do nothing to boost mental and physical health and reduce the risk of burnout at any age. The more frequently you can do this, the more time you spend together as a family, and the more you can invest in their well-being.
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