Wholesome Family Recreational Activities

What is wholesome family recreation? How can we spend quality time with our families to build lasting relationships? The Family: The Proclamation to the World states, "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." 

"Wholesome family recreation can help us strengthen our relationships and reduce negative emotional and spiritual consequences" (Widmer & Taniguchi). 

My husband and I love to watch movies. We watch a lot of  them together. This is a form of recreation that we enjoy, but we must be careful to watch movies that are wholesome and uplifting. We should also expand our recreation to more than just watching movies together. Wholesome recreation involves interaction so that it boosts emotional moral between the couple. Something we love to do together as a wholesome recreational activity is we love to go out for ice cream and also take walks together. This gives us time together to reflect on the day, to talk with one another, to bond, and it's a great form of exercise.

While we want our children to feel that they are having fun by doing wholesome recreational activities together, I do want to caution parents that there can be too many activities for children to do. "Family experts have warned against what they call 'the overscheduling of children' (Anderson & Doherty, 2005)....Among many measures of this disturbing trend are the reports that structured sports time has doubled, but children's free time has declined by 12 hours per week and unstructured outdoor activities have fallen by 50 percent. The number of those who reported their 'whole family usually eats dinner together' has declined 33 perecnt...There is inspired wisdom in this advice to parents: what your children really want for dinner is you" (Widmer & Taniguchi). 

Too many children in today's society stay indoors and play video games or watch TV all day long. Not only is this unhealthy, but it is detrimental to the relationship of the family. Bonds are not made when there is a lack of interaction. This can also be harmful to one's spirit because they may feel lazy or have escaped into a digital world. Elder Bednar said, "I raise an apostolic voice of warning about the potentially stifling, suffocating, suppressing, and constraining impact of some kinds of cyberspace interactions and experiences upon our souls" ("Things as They Really Are,"2010). 

Here are 5 ways that we can encourage wholesome family recreation:

1. Have family meals together

2. Hold weekly Family Home Evening (family night)

3. Pray daily together as a family (both morning & night)

4. Study the scriptures together daily

5. Find ways to serve others together as a family

Here are 5 wholesome recreational activities you can do as a family:

1. Take a walk, hike, bike ride, or car ride together

2. Do family history work together

3. Have a family game night

4. Visit a museum together

5. Have a picnic together

Source: Hawkins, A. J. (20122012). Wholesome Family Recreation: Building Strong Families. Successful marriages and families: proclamation principles and research perspectives (225-234). Provo, Utah: BYU Studies and School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.

Let's Put the Family to Work

I will be honest...I do not always like to work. I do not enjoy cleaning the house, I do not enjoy doing homework, I do not enjoy running errands. However, I know that I need to learn to enjoy doing at least some of these things because there is great value in work. I plan on teaching my future children this as well. With that being said, do your children groan about doing chores? Do you groan when you have to clean the house? It's time to "put your shoulder to the wheel...[and] do your duty with a heart full of song," ("Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel," LDS Hymn 252). Did you know that "housework is a...major source of contention between the sexes," (Hawkins, 213)? Let's put the family to work and create a home of peace and instill a sense of work ethic in the family.

We know from The Family: A Proclamation to the World that "successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of ...work."

Parents do not need a perfect system for doing chores. It can be chaotic and discouraging when children complain or quarrel with one another. Focus on the value of the work and not completing the work perfectly. If we focus on perfection then the work seems endless.

1. Parents should seek an approach based on "attentive love." This means that we discipline children when they do not do their chores and we reward them when they do.

2. All family members are vital to family work. Children can learn to take responsibility for family work and mothers set the household tone for family work. 

3. Family work becomes a joyful blessing when not seen as a burden. We must be happy when we are working so that the children can see that work can be fun.

Source: Hawkins, A. J. (20122012). Meanings and Blessings of Family Work. Successful marriages and families: proclamation principles and research perspectives (213-223). Provo, Utah: BYU Studies and School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.

As we teach our children the value of work and the importance of work in the family, our families will grow and prosper. We will be organized, unified, and happy. 

We will "organize [ourselves]; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." ~D&C 88:119