Family Fun Night — Why We Should All Do It [POLL]

With all the distractions in our busy lives, do you ever feel disconnected from your own family? Between shuffling kids to school, going to work, picking up the kids from school or their outside activities, making sure you have food in the house, paying the bills, cleaning the house and whatever life throws in front of us, it's not surprising we could feel that way. I know I personally feel disconnected from my family. I feel stressed and just tired. I've known it, but kept pushing it to the back burner. Why? Because I'm too busy! And with my husband working in Longview during most of the week, it doesn't make it any easier. For the last three years I realized that I've had been on "overload mode".

I thought it was time to face it, and deal with it.

So I asked my family this past weekend if they would like to set a family night each week so we could all catch up with each other and just relax and spend time together. We didn't have to plan anything exciting, just enjoying each other for a few hours and kicking back.  To my surprise, they said yes! (Yes, my 16 year old said yes!)

Last night was our first "family night." We put Chloe, my daughter, in charge of what we would do for family night. We started out with going to a pizza buffet. Normally we go through the buffet quickly and head out, but last night we took our time. I would catch myself talking about work, and I would quickly stop (It's hard to break some of those habits, you know).

At home we played the board game LIFE -- twice. Then we watched one of our favorite sitcoms and that was pretty much our family night.

I can't tell you how awesome last night was. I enjoyed every single second. Family night is truly a great way to reconnect with yourself and your family. I'm surprised that a simple evening with pizza, a board game and watching a 30-minute sitcom could be so great. Now the hard part -- to keep it up every week.

I hope those of you who are reading this story and seeing your own family in it, will make the effort to have a weekly family night. Life goes on whether we have a family night or not, so don't pass up the opportunity to make lasting memories and enjoy each other.

As type A as I am and I can do, I know you can, too. Now I'm gonna work on a date night with the hubby (Wish me luck!).

I'm curious of how many of you have a family night. Please share some of your thoughts and ideas for a family night, too.