Tips to help you reconnect as a family
You may all live under the same roof, but you may feel disconnected as a family. If this sounds familiar, we’ve got 5 tips to help you reconnect as a family and feel stronger.
It’s ok if you’re feeling some disconnection. The pressures of work, school, housework and life generally can make any family unit feel out of sync.
Maybe there’s been a disagreement or life event that has made you feel distant from one another.
Don’t fret. You can do some things to help you reconnect as a family and strengthen the bond you have with your loved ones.
5 tips that will help you reconnect as a family
1. Listening
Listening to each other is one of the best ways to bring your family closer together and help you reconnect as a family. Not only is it good to be heard, but it’s also good to hear how the people in your life feel about things.
In fact, listening can help you talk about any issues you’re having. You’ll also see family members feeling encouraged by loved ones can be important for good mental health.
Having a conversation – calmly – and understanding all sides is an essential building block to getting back on the right track.
However, to do this successfully, only one person should talk at a time, and everyone else should listen without interrupting.
Some good conversations starters to help you reconnect as a family include:
- What did you like about your day or week?
- Has anything bothered you this week?
- Is there anything, in particular, you’re looking forward to tomorrow?
- Was there a dinner you liked this week?
- Did anything make you laugh today?
- Are there any decisions you had to make?
2. Positivity
Families come in all shapes and sizes, but it’s important to show each other how much you appreciate each other. Showing each other this positive appreciation will also help you all reconnect as a family and bring your family closer together.
This helps to create closeness, promote love, boost self-confidence, offer support, and encourage positivity.
We have strong bonds with our family members. More so than with any other people in our lives.
One of the best ways to create a strong family bond is to show each other appreciation.
During the family time to reconnect as a family, you could:
- Ask each other what you love about this family – name a person’s qualities rather than achievements.
- Praise any helpful behaviour, like doing chores or being kind to one another.
- Spend quality time one on one with each person in the family. This allows for some family bonding and will bring your family closer together.
- Encourage everyone to speak kindly to each other.
3. Learn how to handle emotions
Having emotions is what makes us human and not robots. How we express these emotions is the most essential part of bringing your family closer together.
Often, in a family, we show more of our true selves. So we must learn how to communicate and conduct ourselves and our emotions to help reconnect as a family rather than cause further disconnection.
All feelings – negative and positive are valid. It’s essential to encourage your children not to hide how they’re feeling. Healthily expressing both sides of emotion in front of your children will help them better express their own.
Similarly, it’s good to get things off your chest constructively. You’re also teaching your children how to handle themselves and also problem solve.
How to help bring your family closer together, reconnect as a family and navigate through negative emotions:
- Get your family members to open up about their feelings to you and remind them it’s a safe environment.
- Don’t blow up if you don’t like something that’s said. Calmly deal with things.
- Follow up on any concerns you have about anything after the conversation.
4. Taking responsibility
Parents can show their children how to take ownership of their behaviour, thoughts, words and actions. To bring your family closer together, you all need to own your individual parts in the family unit.
Taking the first steps isn’t always easy, so be encouraging if someone in your family chooses to address something.
When we are under stress, we can behave in undesirable ways, which can cause rifts in the family. But we must learn from our mistakes and learn to reconnect as a family.
It’s equally important to work on repairing our relationships afterwards, which will help bring your family closer together.
How we can take responsibility for our behaviour:
- Acknowledge the mistakes you made.
- Don’t blame or complain. Each person should speak for themselves and not just point the finger.
- Calmly solve problems and be kind to each other.
- Come up with a solution to the problem.
5. Let go of expectations
Working out how to reconnect as a family isn’t easy; doing it can be harder. If you want to bring your family closer together, you first need to let go of any expectations you have of each other.
You may have a sister who is always late, a constantly overachieving brother or that family member who never seems to have their life together. When it comes to your children, every parent has expectations of how their kids’ lives will turn out…but that’s really up to the kids. It can all be frustrating, but no family is perfect.
If you want to reconnect as a family, you need to stop judging or getting annoyed people aren’t who you want or expect them to be. To help bring your family closer together, swap expectations for appreciation. By choosing to love them the way, they are, not the way you want them to be. You’ll find you’re able to reconnect as a family and just relax together.
Imagine how much closer every family would be if everyone were accepted for who they are, not criticized for who they’re not and never will be.
If you feel like you and your family need extra support to reconnect as a family, it’s always worth seeking professional help.
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