The Benefits of Family Game Night

Disclosure: This blog post about the Benefits of Family Game Night contains affiliate links. These are some of our favourite family games – ones that have brought us hours of fun!

My niece posted photos of her family playing Speak Out in our family group on Facebook last night. It’s that game where everyone wears these funny mouthpieces to hold their mouths open and then you have to try to speak. The others have to guess what you are saying. Needless to say, this generally results in the participants dissolving into laughter over the silliness of it all. Family game night can be such an amazing way to spend time together as a family. Routines don’t always have to mean drudgery. Having something fun to look forward to throughout the week, makes those hard days much easier to navigate. The benefits of planning a weekly family game night, make playing games much more than just a fun experience.

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Family Time

In this day and age, it is more important than ever to plan ahead for what’s important. Family time should be a priority, but it’s not always easy to make space for it in our busy schedules. With everyone participating in so many different activities, family game night is an amazing way to deliberately set aside some time to be together as a family.

Minimize Screen Time

You know what they say about too much of a good thing. While there is nothing wrong with spending some time playing video games or watching TV, it is a good idea to take time for other more social activities.

Family game night is a positive way to encourage the entire family to stay off their electronics. When the entire family is playing a game together, the kids will be able to realize that there is a whole world of fun away from the screens. There’s definitely something to be said for looking directly at each other instead of heads bent down, looking at screens.

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Teaches Good Sportsmanship

It is not an easy feat to teach a disappointed child to be kind when they have lost. It is also not easy to show your children that while it’s OK to be excited that they have won, it’s not OK to gloat. No matter how difficult, this is an important life lesson that they need to learn.

Teaching your children to be good sports, whether they win or lose, is an important lesson to teach while they are still young. It may seem like a little thing, but it is a transferrable skill that will help them deal with successes and disappointments throughout their entire lives.

Teaches Flexibility

Game nights should be fun, not stressful and so if a new game isn’t working out, for whatever reason, it’s ok to try something different. This is another great life lesson for kids, teaching them to be flexible when things don’t go their way.

If there is a night that everyone is tired and would rather watch a movie together instead of participating in family game night, that’s absolutely fine. Game night should be made a priority, but not if it causes you stress or guilt. As long as the family is still spending time together, it’s still a win.

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Hours of Fun

Having a weekly (bi-weekly? monthly? Consider what will work for your family!) family game night can result in hours of fun. You will undoubtedly spend so much time together laughing, learning and playing together. At the end of a long week, family game night is a fantastic way to de-stress and enjoy each other’s company.

There are many different benefits around family game nights. Parents and kids alike, can benefit greatly from less screen time, learning good sportsmanship and just spending time together. Family game night is fun way to learn and laugh, together. And it’s a great way for multiple generations to hang out and have fun with each other. My family has been playing games together for as long as I can remember. We still play games as adults together and we have introduced many games to our children and grandchildren too. These have even evolved into cherished family traditions (Gagen Family Cutthroat Scrabble Tournament on Christmas Day, for one) and many of our fondest memories as a family have taken place while playing a game.

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