Activities with Family to Stay Sane at Home
Hello everyone, I hope you all are doing well and keeping safe. Though the lockdown has ended, we are still sticking to the routine. It seems that we have reluctantly accepted the new normal. I am not saying it’s easy but knowing that it’s the best way to stay safe, we don’t mind continuing to follow the rules for a few more months. There are some things, which we enjoyed doing as a family and that helped us cope with the anxiety associated with the lockdown. In fact, these have become a part of our life now. So, today I want to share how these activities with family are keeping us sane at home.
I know it’s not easy for everyone to accept the current situation as the new normal. But for the sake of our family, we can at least try to look at the brighter side.
These 6 Activities with Family are keeping us happy even after the lockdown has lifted
The lockdown gave us an opportunity to discover our hidden strengths and work on our weaknesses on the personal front. We used our creative side to make dull & exhausting tasks fun for the whole family. It really helped us all to cope up with the stressful situation.
1 – Cooking is a Teamwork
I hate cooking when it is forced upon me, especially if I have to do it daily. My husband, on the other hand, didn’t know how to cook anything, except Maggi. And making tea. So, when we had to let go of our cook, we knew it would need a lot of teamwork. The first thing we did was divide cooking tasks based on our interests & capabilities.
Initially, Sumit took care of cutting & chopping veggies and preparing the dough for paratha or rotis. Gradually, he took over breakfast duty & now he makes the yummiest poha and vermicelli in our family. I take care of the cooking part, mainly lunch and evening snacks. Our dinner is rather simple; it’s the leftover food from breakfast or lunch. So, there’s no wastage either.
We also involve our kid, Nemit, in simple cooking during the weekend. He loves making sandwiches. Easy activities like peeling, mashing, stirring, pouring are good for young kids. By letting him participate in the kitchen work, we help him develop good eating habits too.
Cooking doesn’t seem like a burden anymore!
2 – House chores as our new Fitness Mantra
Just like cooking, we divided house chores too. We know cleaning and mopping the whole house is not an easy task. Moreover, it’s time-consuming for us. So, now we do it on weekends only as a family activity. Or, just when we feel the need. Sumit does the sweeping while I do the mopping. And, dusting is a fun game for Nemit.
You may also read – 5 Helpful Tips to Achieve your Health and Fitness Goals!
I’d never thought we could manage without our house help for so long. But we survived the difficult days and now ‘Do the house chores’ has become our new fitness mantra.
3 – Homeschooling can be Fun
With the lockdown, we were introduced to the concept of schooling from home through virtual classes. Initially, it was a huge task for us to make Nemit sit in front of the laptop. We soon realized we would need some creative ideas to make it fun and engaging for him. Once we changed the learning strategy as per Nemit’s interest, he adjusted to the new setting quite well. We focused on play-based learning and encouraged our son to use creativity and imagination in learning.
We can either crib and make things worse or we can look for alternate ways and make things work.
You may check out this post for some ideas to make young kids pay attention during homeschool classes.
4 – Making TikTok videos is one of the fun activities with family we enjoyed the most
We all know about TikTok and almost every other person has tried their acting skills on this app. We enjoyed making fun videos on TikTok during the lockdown. This is another activity, which we loved doing as a family and it really helped us in coping with the anxiety.
There have been many times when we didn’t feel like doing anything. When we were struggling at cooking and managing household chores, we often needed something to keep our spirits high. That’s when we became active on TikTok, watching funny videos would instantly uplift our mood.
Some of our best memories from the lockdown are the ones when we were creating fun videos on TikTok.
5 – Games & Fun activities with Family
We tried making the house chores, cooking and studies fun for all of us. But we still needed some entertaining family time to relax and rejuvenate. We couldn’t take Nemit to the park or even to the society terrace since it was not allowed due to the COVID 19 scare. So, we looked for interesting activities and games which we could enjoy at home together.
We did camping in our balcony garden, we plan day picnics, we enjoy gardening, we dance like crazy, we sing karaoke, we do fun yoga together, we make a lot of crafts, peek-a-boo and ludo are our favourite games.
It is not that difficult to stay happy at home, you just need to find out fun ways to spend time together.
6 – Some Screen time is Ok
We are very careful when it comes to screen time be it watching TV or using a mobile phone. I frequently feel the need to take a break from the devices and disconnect from the virtual world. And for that, I prefer taking a digital detox every month.
We love watching movies at the theatre, but that’s not an option anymore. The good thing is we still have OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, ZEE5, etc to enjoy uninterrupted series and movies. Once every week we plan a movie night. Sometimes we let Nemit pick a cartoon or animated movie which we all enjoy together.
You may read my review of the movie – Chintu Ka Birthday!
PIN IT!
It was not easy to stay positive throughout the lockdown. It is still not easy. But we have to adjust, adapt, and evolve to stay happy & sane during these difficult times.
You may also read – How the Lockdown helped Families Adapt & Evolve?
How are you coping with anxiety? What all things do you enjoy doing with your family? Tell me in the comments below.
Sometimes tough and unexpected situation gives us better ideas. “Majboori ka naam mahatma”-its like that. Now when we all know that we don’t have any other option, we try to ind ways to stay home and be happy.
Yes, you are right Aplana, the tough situations do give us better ideas to move smoothly through it. But it also depends on person to person how they take it, like a majboori or an opportunity.
Staying back at home is the oly option left but at the same time we can utilize this time for better things a nice write up for current situation..
This lockdown had helped us get creative with our time too. We’ve done almost everything you’ve done too. We dance, workout, cook and clean together. Also, we’re having a good time getting new plants and creating a new home garden.
While most of us are either fearful, stressed and anxious about being cooped up in the house due to the Pandemic we didn’t realize how it has served to bring us all closer to each other. So good to know of all the fun things you and your family have been doing this lockdown.
Many people get surprised when I tell them that we were doing all of this even before the pandemic hit except cleaning & cooking for which we had a house help and a cook. The only change now is that we are not going outside which played with our minds initially. And for our own sanity, we had to look for some fun ways to do the usual things. But yes pandemic did help many families to come closer and work as a team.
Wow! Great. It is a great joy to see how you and your family adjust themselves according to the situations. Your hubby and kid are helping you in the daily chores. It is another plus, I can see that you people make a happy place happier than before.
Beautiful post Neha, I loved your coping mechanism techniques for the lockdown, love the fact that you have used household chores for workout. In fact all of us are doing it knowingly or unknowingly. Cooking together is o much fun too
Yes totally agree with you there so many activities to do with kids at home, we also try some of these activities like planting trees small small games at home with daily items and it’s really helpful to keep kids active and play with them
This is the most helpful post I have read in a while. I am definitely going to try out some of these with my daughter.
That’s amazing activities to stay active while staying at home. Agree that lockdown brings family together and we love doing cooking and house hold chores together
These are all wonderful ideas for some good and healthy family style fun times spent together! I especially enjoyed watching your videos!
This time taught us so many things and among that is the best doing such cool activities as a family we are also loving few activities and doing that together!!
Wow loved reading this post Neha. Indeed these are some of the fun activities that can keep the family happy and engaged. Especially kids would love doing these the most as they bond families.
I agree finding activities which are interesting for everyone in the family is a good way to bring together the family, and really help keep everyone busy and coping with the lockdown.
I especially liked the idea of the balcony garden – something where everyone can be involved, and its got so many lessons that can easily be taught.
Lovely post. This lockdown has indeed made us do a lot of things together as a family. Chores are a new way of exercise for us too.
This is so fun yet informative to read.. I love all the activities you shared here. We too follow the same in my house.
These are some easy and sweet family activities we also so do many of these like watching a movie together or cooking storm in the kitchen we also do are window Garden cleaning together this is fun you can always utilise sometime working together
I am happy that we got this opportunity, rather a blessing in disguise to spend time with each other like we never did before. The bonding and camaraderie is stronger than ever. Other than everything you mentioned, we have been doing some more things and inculcated them in our routine. The children are happy and we are relaxed.
lovely post
Thank you, Ramya