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Lindsay Metcalf
on Jun 19 2013 - 06:00 AM
My top five most important moments of the summer so far
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on Jun 18 2013 - 06:00 AM
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Emily Parnell
on Jun 16 2013 - 06:00 AM
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Jim Cosgrove
on Jun 13 2013 - 06:00 AM
I just want to buy some pants. Please, turn down the music.
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“When I think of close families, I think of yours,” DH said to me a couple of weeks ago. This statement came out of nowhere for me. Apparently, my DH thinks my dysfunctional family is something to behold.
This was surprising since my family jokes that it took moving to four different states to get along. My sister lives in Tennessee, my brother in Texas, my folks in Illinois and we live in Missouri. Although we live apart, we talk to each other at least once a week and we visit each other once a year. For Easter, we visit my sister and in the summer, my brother and I visit my folks together in Chicago.
I told Neil that my very determined mother forced our “closeness” upon us. My mom grew up in a strained home environment and she swore that when she had a family, it was going to be different.
Enter “Family Fun” nights.
When we were growing up, one of my mom’s traditions was “Family Fun” nights or as we used to call them “Forced Family Fun” nights. My mom insisted that one night a week was reserved for family time doing different things together. We would go to the zoo, the movies, museums, ball games, etc. Attendance was mandatory. We could occasionally invite friends to these events, but you were required to attend.This was really fun when we were younger… but when I got to high school, this was a really weird event to try to explains to my friends. My close friends knew better than to invite me to parties on Friday nights. How did it affect your dating life you may ask? Yea, I was fat in high school and a huge nerd so there was no schedule conflict there. My Friday nights were wide open.
So when DH mentioned he would like our family to be close like my family, I reinstated “Family Fun” night. We have now officially had our first FF night, and it about killed him. Not really, but I think it’s a bit of a different concept for him. Spending the night watching Toy Story 3 for the thousandth time was a bit lack-luster for him. So… I think I will have to get a bit creative (cheap) for our FF nights since that’s how we roll, but he’s excited to give it a try. This weekend, we are going to watch the new Puss in Boots movies. Riveting!
What are your “Family Fun” traditions?
We too, have been known to have family fun events where it's "have fun or else". Usually on a weekend afternoon. We find monthly is more feasible than weekly as our kids have gotten older...but they never argue, for resistance is futile.I can totally understand why your mom had a family fun night. I think as your little guy gets older, you will understand and appreciate it even more. It is good that you are starting that tradition with your family. We have family movie nights. We try to rent a new movie, which is kind of hard since it has to be appropriate for a 6YO or we watch one we have. We get a big bowl of popcorn and add yummy candy to it, snuggle on the couch downstairs and just relax and enjoy our time.We do these too. My kids favorite is game night. Especially when we do team games and the kids try to go against the parents. :) We've also gone to Ernie Miller Nature park and hiked (on family fun "day" because they're closed at night). We bought season passes to Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun and had 6 months of "free" days and nights out with the kids for less than $400. Camped out in the backyard and made Smores on the gas bbq grill. LOL!
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