6. Quirky videos.
As I read blogs and websites, I often come across short funny videos that I bookmark, and every few days I’ll sit down with some of my kids and we’ll have a good laugh reviewing these.
Another great source of short, informative, amusing and family-friendly videos is Wimp.com. Many’s an hour on a Saturday morning after our waffles and syrup we spend lounging on the sofa with the iPad enjoying the weird and wonderful people and pets in our world.
7. Less doing.
I thought British kids were over-scheduled, but American kids have even more packed into their days and lives. It’s all good things like sports, clubs, youth fellowships, etc., but they hardly ever get time to do nothing.
Same with parents—we’re all so strung and stressed out and just making ourselves miserable with all that we are trying to accomplish.
Sometimes I’ve stopped my kids doing really exciting things because they just needed to stop, sit still, rest and even just sleep. No, the decision didn’t exactly produce instant happiness—but a surprising happiness was the long-term result.
8. Willing service.
Most kids seem to think that they will be happiest when everyone is serving them. Many parents have fallen into this trap too, virtually becoming their kids’ slaves.
Although it’s counterintuitive and countercultural, we can greatly increase our children’s happiness by helping them find joy in serving others—that begins at home, but should also extend to school, church and the community.
They will gradually experience the strangest yet most wonderful happiness in such selfless service.
9. Joint projects.
Try to find projects that the family can do together—yard work, or painting and furnishing a room. The last couple of weeks our family banded together to help me build a deck in our yard.
It’s fun to work together, and even better to look at the finished product together with a sense of mutual delight and satisfaction—“We did it!”
10. Unbreakable relationships.
Kids thrive on a sense of security and stability. I’ve noticed that some kids get quite troubled and worried whenever they hear of another divorce or relationship breakdown. I can almost read their minds, “If that happened to them, could it ever happen to us?”
We need to communicate to our kids that our marriages are unbreakable, that they can count on us to stick with one another through thick and thin, that we love one another forever, and are totally committed to one another. Same goes for our relationships with them—we show them that even when we are angry with them and have to discipline them, we will never cast them off or out, physically or emotionally.
What would you add to the list? What have you found that helped build a happy home?
