Every family needs a routine. It helps them organize life and live in harmony. One must follow a daily routine for a stronger family. A routine caters to the needs of all family members and helps them bond together.
Routine itself means organizing, and the family routine is to spend the time to do it together and have fun. Every family might have unique ways to do their routine and also might have their unique methods to fulfil it. But the most significant challenge a family faces is to establish a comfortable routine that suits all the members of the family and such that there isn’t a disorder and confusion among the members doing it.
Some routine is helpful for all families as it gets through the things that need to be done each day, bonding the families together. But what about the boredom or rigidity that the members might face? Especially for the kids who aren’t given enough choice or flexibility in their routine? Read more to know how we can help ourselves and kids to follow the routine.
Basics of Family Routine:
We have a few daily routine tips for a stronger family but before that, we need to know the basics about routine.
- Routine to get everyone ready on time in the morning hours. Everyone needs to know that has to be done to get ready for the day.
- Especially the bath time, the mealtime, bedtime and also greetings and goodbyes.
- Weekly household chores which come as the most important part of the family routine like washing and cleaning etc.
- Other routines during family holidays or get-together etc.
Weekly Mornings:
- It is good to put as many things as possible in order a night before.
- Make sure to have a cheerful wake-up routine to keep the whole day cheerful.
- Have a lovely breakfast with your family together even if the kids are not hungry. Make it a routine.
- Greet everyone goodbye and show it with a simple gesture of hug or wave with a kiss maybe. It really cheers up everyone with the basic love and affection that we show each morning and gives a positive vibe to keep up the stress of work and other things the whole day. (check out some smart tricks to slow down time to enjoy with your family)
When Do You Need a Daily Routine?
A daily routine needs to get in when you feel your family does not spend time together or have fun. Routine is needed to make the family work together without having one of the family members to slog the whole day. Also, one does not have to nag the kids to do their bit every day. Saves time and energy to concentrate on other tasks.
Get the routine in for the betterment of kids to help them develop and grow, make them independent. You surely need a daily routine for a stronger family, read on further for why.
Why Routines are Good for Children:
Few kids who need routine more than any others. Having a vital job to do in the family routine, the kids and teenagers develop a sense of responsibility from very early ages and makes the family stronger. Kids also feel safe and secured in a well organized, consistent and predictable home environment. Some quick daily Routine tips for a stronger family:
- Teach kids healthy habits like brushing their teeth twice in the morning and before bed, indulge in some simple exercise and wash hands before eating or after using the toilet.
- The routine should be built for kids to have fun as well with the series of things to do like story together before bed, having breakfast together on the table every morning, going for a walk at evening or play days on weekends etc. It helps kids to build and strengthen the relationship with parents.
- A routine is good to keep your kid healthy. Routine helps to set a body clock (R) like going to bed at 9 PM every night puts the body sleepy by that time every day. This allows kids especially when they grow up into adolescence, maturing and changing the body clock.
- Routine helps the kids to feel safe and secure especially when they change at puberty.
- Having a routine in case of medicine is the best way to avoid any skip in the therapeutic dosage.
- Routine teaches kids to put their work into time scale and manage their time better.
- Children might need supervision until they grow up. For example, when they come back from school to an empty house, they are prone to misbehave or anxiety related behavioural activities. Thus putting them into a particular routine early age, by coming back home to parents or adults, removes the need for an adult supervision every day after the routine sets.
Why routines are good for parents:
- Routine helps parents to manage their time properly and free up a time to think about other priority tasks.
- Parenting gets easier when a routine is followed each day.
- Reduces your stress to a certain level to assure that few things will be done anyway as part of the routine.
- Routine brings inefficiency in the task.
- Routine establishes a stronger family giving peace of mind at home.
Tips to Establish a Stronger Family with New Routines:
- Know the goal of the new routine, and from the start to end picture it. For instance, if you think you need a new routine to keep your kids ready on time for school – imagine what you could do and what the kids could do to manage time. Like, you can pack their bags while they wear the shoes, you can lay the breakfast for them while they get dressed up.
- Work out on which part of the routine needs support or extra hand and which needs to be handled independently. Like for instance, you might want to teach kids to go to bed independently without you having to put them to sleep. If you think your kids take longer to get dressed, assist them in getting ready to school.
- Think about the time aspect and judge which activity takes longer and why. Know the milestones for each task, for example, if your kid has to get onto the school bus at 8:30 sharp, they need to be on the breakfast table by 8:00 AM and then finish by 8:15 AM and wear shoes to walk to the bus stop before time.
- With kids growing, you might want to add new family rules at times like making their own bed after they get up in the morning, cleaning their play area themselves etc.
- Adding behavioural routine is important too. Like you might want to set clear rules about the acceptable and non-acceptable behaviour when sitting at a dining table or when you have guests at home etc.
- Setting up routine for success when the kids have exams coming up or need to study more, they might have to switch off the TV and go back to study.
Weekend routine:
The weekend routine must have some changes compared to the weekday as it is more for relaxing, rejuvenating from the weekday stress and also to bond together as a family.
- Make a routine to go out for the simplest of things like grocery shopping or visiting a museum or zoo or camping/ hiking.
- Attend religious services together.
- Allow the elder kids to have leisure time with friends. Teenagers have a change in the bedtime during weekends (obviously go to bed late), which should be okay.
- Family time is essential but remember to have some “self-time” with the partner as well to strengthen the bond and love.
- Indulge with kids in healthy indoor or outdoor activities and fun.
Hope these tips on establishing a stronger family help you. Keep reading with us, and write to us what you think, we love to hear from you.
Read more about how to balance work and family. Also, read on tips to get kids to listen
