The proliferation of mobile and digital technologies has left many families with no time for each other. For many parents, finding time to spend with their families on a busy day is a constant challenge. When family members have no time for each other, they miss on a number of benefits that this could create for the family bond. It is well known that spending time with family can improve self-esteem, nurture positive behavior, reduce stress and encourage a healthy lifestyle.
If you are looking for a way of spending time with your family, you may want to consider sport. Research shows that families that play sport together usually have stronger relationships and they tend to deal with stress in a better way than those that don’t. Make this even more fun by learning how to make a team website for your family and share your family sporting advice with the rest of the world on the internet.
Here are some ways through which you can use sport to strengthen your family bond.
Include everyone
It’s easy to think that children will like what the parents also like. This is not always the case. Hence, if you are planning to use sport as a way of bringing your family together, make sure that you have taken everybody’s interests into consideration.
It’s possible that family members will like different sporting activities. This is good because you can then learn from each other. Learning a new sport can be great fun, especially when you do it as a family.
Set aside time
The one thing that every member of your family is likely to run a shortage of is time. However, if you set the time for family sports in advance and everybody knows it, you can all set your schedules around that time. This may also be a good way of teaching family members how to manage time. They also learn about the importance of making time available for others.
Allow members to participate in their own way
If your idea is to strengthen your family bond through sport, then you don’t want to make anyone feel as if they are being forced to participate. Let everybody understand why you are doing this and get their buy-in.
Where members of the family may not want to participate in the in physical sporting activities, they can do other things. For example, incorporate them as referees. They can be spectators and encourage team members as they play. They could also be coaches if they have some skills.
Encourage participation with variable rewards
Make participation worth everybody’s time by offering rewards for winning teams. There is a gambler in all of us. When people have no idea of what rewards are on offer, they may be motivated to play.
Depending on your resources, find encouraging rewards like a trip to the family’s favorite restaurant if everybody turns up on time for family sports day. Exempt winning teams from doing some chores for certain periods of time. Whatever rewards you decide on, ensure that the whole family agrees on them.
Incorporate sport into routine activities
Instead of traveling together in the family car, you can encourage everybody to cycle together to your destination. This could encourage even those members of the family who believe that they don’t like sports to participate.
Even simple activities like walking the dog can be done as a family. Whatever you do, you want to ensure that the whole family comes together and everybody gets to know each other better.
