Culture

Boost Happiness

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Food. Shelter. Love. And…games?

Though playtime may not pop to mind when you list the essentials for family happiness, it’s one of the best things you can share with your partner or kids.

“It connects family members to each other,” says marriage and family therapist Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D. She recommends playing games of all kinds together, from parcheesi to ping-pong, tiddlywinks to tag. “It teaches sportsmanship. It teaches vocabulary and communication, as well as important social skills— patience, respect and honesty.”

The Benefits of Playing
Games may even make kids more resilient. It’s easier to face life’s setbacks if you’ve seen Mom shrug it off when she flubs a Frisbee toss, or Dad laugh when his golf ball lands in the water, Marie says.

Of course, in this era of packed schedules and multiple jobs, making time for games can feel tricky. “One of the ways to deal with that is to reset your priorities,” Marie points out. Cook simpler meals. Cut back on housework.

Game Time
Another key to playing more: Put regular game nights on your calendar. “Institutionalizing anything makes sure it happens,” Marie says. What games are right for your family?

“The main thing I would stress is that they need to be age appropriate to the child, not the adult—and as the child grows, you should introduce more games that require the kid to stretch,” Marie says.

Often the best games are spur-of-the-moment: improv games, say, where you play characters (spies, advice experts) over dinner or at the supermarket; spoken word games that involve rhymes or synonyms; even cleanup games (two points each time you toss a pair of undies in the hamper!)

And in the end, it’s play itself, more than any specific game, that matters. “It’s the fact that this is family time,” Marie says. Memories of family games “will last through your children’s lives. These are the ties that bind.”

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