Lives have gotten pretty busy in general, and the western suburbs are no different. After all the various school and sports activities, meetings and other events, there’s often very little time to spend with your family.
We live in a time when a parent’s ability to be a good parent is often judged by the number of activities their children are enrolled in, the amount of scrambling it takes to get through a day and their ability to remember the various schedules of everyone in the family.
These over-scheduled lives can take a toll on parents, but the effect on their children can actually be long lasting.
That’s why a group from Wayzata, Putting Family First, started preaching about the importance of family time and the effects of over-scheduled, under-connected families six years ago.
When the group began, it gained national attention because of its mission to ease the pressure from activities and encourage more family time. One of the group’s first initiatives was granting a seal of approval to organizations that support family time.
This year the group is organizing Putting Family First Night on March 7. The goal of the effort is to encourage families to eat dinner together and enjoy a night of being a family.
It’s pretty showing how over-scheduled our lives have become when an initiative to stay home for a night generates such widespread community support.
On March 7, which falls on a Monday, the Wayzata School Board “highly recommends” that there be no homework, practices, meetings or organized activities that night.
In addition, the Plymouth City Council has already endorsed the effort, as well as others in the faith community, and the Minnetonka/Plymouth and Wayzata Rotary clubs are underwriting the event.
Instead of the usual rush of a Monday night, families are encouraged to spend the night doing something as a family. Activities the group suggests include cooking dinner together, playing a board game, watching home videos, baking cookies, reading together, taking a walk or starting a family tradition.
While these activities may seem mundane, as they become habit, their impact can be long lasting.
The group cites studies that show a strong connection between regular meals with family and academic success and psychological adjustment. They say quality family time leads to decreases in high-risk behavior and increases in healthy eating.
Quite simply, the group’s vision is to see a community that puts family first. With all the benefits that come from parents and children spending quality time together, the group’s vision is too important to ignore.
