How Busy Parents in Wide Bay Can Reclaim Time for Family Fun
Do you yearn for the days when your kids were toddlers, and you used to spend a lot of quality time with them?
We all know that life as a parent of school-age children can feel like an endless juggling act between work, school runs, extracurricular activities, and household chores, to the point that finding the time to relax and have fun with them can seem nearly impossible.
But, according to several sources, including the Family 1st Initiative, spending quality time with your children can reap numerous benefits for both you and them, including strengthening your bonds, reducing stress, and creating wonderful memories to cherish for the rest of your lives.
Moreover, if you reside in the Wide Bay region, there are plenty of beaches, national parks, and family-friendly attractions within easy driving distance you can head to when you want to enjoy their company.
The question is, how can you free up enough time to enable you to do this?
Here are some practical solutions that can save you several hours during the working week, which can be better spent with your children.
- Establish where you spend your time
You can’t save time if you don’t know how you spend it. So, one of the first things you should do is make an effort to understand where yours is going.
It is a good idea to start tracking your daily activities through an app like Streaks, HabitNow, Way of Life, or Habitify, as this will help you document activities like how long it takes you to commute to work, the length of time you scroll on your phone and do other activities such as household chores.
Once you identify these areas, you can develop a snapshot of where you might be able to save time by either being more efficient at them, setting time limits on how long you will spend on them, or not doing them at all.
- Plan meals ahead
The average Australian is thought to spend around 6 hours a week cooking meals, which can seriously eat into your family time.
However, there are a few things you can do to decrease this figure. For instance, you could try cooking meals in bulk and then freezing them into different portions for later consumption. Additionally, you can use slow-cookers which you can put on in the morning, so the food is pretty much ready for when you get home.
Another good option is to use a ready meal delivery service like Macros, which will deliver healthy, authentic, and nutritious dishes that just need to be heated up.
This is a particularly good option for Monday to Thursday, especially if you are late coming home from work, as it means you can spend more time with your kids instead of meal prepping.
- Hire a cleaner
Recent research carried out by PureProfile on behalf of the Fantastic Services Group revealed that over 25% of Aussies spend over three hours a week on cleaning their homes.
If you are in a financial position to do this, you should consider hiring a cleaner because this will ensure you have more free time to spend with your family. You will also likely be less tired as you won’t be physically exerting yourself as much.
- Learn to Say “No”
Perhaps one of the main reasons you don’t seem to have much free time to devote to your family is because you are always doing non-essential things for others.
While volunteering at school events or helping friends can be worthwhile commitments, don’t be afraid to say no if your schedule is already packed.
You don’t want to go completely the other way and not do anything for anyone. But politely declining requests for assistance will give you additional breathing room to focus on your family.
- Minimise Screen Time
We are all guilty of idly over-scrolling on our phones. Something which research by Reviews.org alluded to when they revealed that Australians spend on average 5.5 hours a day on their personal phone.
This applies equally to parents as well as children and can significantly reduce the quality of family interactions. For this reason, it is a good idea to make a conscious effort to reduce your collective screen time by banning devices from the dinner table and committing to at least an hour of spending time together without checking your socials or instant messages.
When doing this, it is a good idea to get out of the house (while leaving your devices indoors) to avoid the temptation of using them.
- Create “Micro-Moments” of Fun
There is a misconception that family time needs to be a big event where you head down to the beach for a few hours or enjoy a day out in a park in Bundaberg. While these are important and fun to do, you should not lose sight that you can create micro-moments of fun any time.
This can involve a 10-minute dance party after the kids have finished their homework, setting up a quick scavenger hunt for them to find their dessert, or even playing an impromptu game of keeping up the balloons.
Basically, anything that breaks up the daily routine of home life and gets you both smiling, even for a short time, should be treated like gold dust.
