Building Stronger Family Bonds Only Takes 15 Minutes a Day With These Strategies

Let’s face it. Life is busy, and as time goes on, it only gets busier. If you have kids, it may seem like you blink and those babies are already a year older. That’s why it’s essential that you treasure these times and find any chance you can to build stronger family bonds. It may seem like a time-intensive process, but the reality is that with proper planning and some smart strategizing, you can build stronger bonds in 15-minute intervals. 

Even with 15 minutes a day, you can connect with your family and learn what's going on in your kids' lives. To help facilitate these bonds, we've created this list of fun questions and family activities that can help you to grow closer, even on the busiest days.

Start With Simple Conversation Starters

One of the easiest ways to build stronger family bonds in under 15 minutes is to talk to one another whenever you get the chance. It may not seem like there’s a lot to talk about after you’ve finished asking about school and work, but you’d be surprised. 

You can build incredible bonds by having small talks around the dinner table or when you’re driving down the road to run errands. Your conversations can start by asking a simple question. They can be fun questions, serious questions, or anything in between. If you need a quick conversation starter, here are some inquiries to consider:

Your Favorite Things

Ask questions about things you enjoy. Answering your family members these questions can naturally lead to other questions. Also, if you ask about things they like to do, then you can continue to bond by doing those activities together. Good questions in this regard include:

• What’s your favorite song?
• What’s your favorite movie?
• If we could go anywhere you wanted on vacation, where would you choose?
• What is your favorite TV show?
• What is your favorite game?

Use Your Imagination

There are also plenty of questions you can ask that will require you and your kids to use your imagination to answer. These are really fun questions you can ask while you’re sitting around the living room. You never know where the answers will lead you. Here are some examples:

• If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
• What would you do for a day if you had a time machine?
• If you were invisible, what would you do?
• If you had a special day, what would you want to do?

Think About Yourself

Although you are all family, there are always new things you can learn about each other, so ask questions when you get the chance. Here are some fun questions that can lead to further conversation:

• What do you want to be when you grow up?
• What is your earliest memory?
• What are you most proud of?
• What is your idea of an ideal day?
• What makes you feel better when you're upset?

Think About the Family

Once you talk about yourselves as individuals, you can build stronger family bonds by asking questions and being honest about your family unit. Here are some sample questions:

• What is your favorite family tradition?
• What are the things that you think kids wish their parents knew?
• Can you list the most important rules in our family?
• What’s the best thing about our family?
• What are the most important things your parents have taught you?
• How are you like each of your parents?
• Do you think it’s harder for children who have been adopted than for children who weren't?

Talk About Values

Perhaps the best way to bond with your family is to talk about your values. As a family, you will want to have the same or very similar values. That’s the only way to work as a cohesive unit and grow together in the right direction. So ask questions like these to understand each other better:

• Is it ever okay to treat people worse because they look different from you?
• Is it ever okay to lie?
• Is it ever okay to cheat in academics, business, sports, etc?
• Should you pray to God?
• Is it important to vote?
• How would you change the world if you could?

Discuss School

While you may have asked your kids what they did at school today, there is more you can learn about what your kids did while they were away for the day. Learning these answers can help you guide your kids going forward. Here are some questions:

• What did you learn today?
• What do you like most about school?
• What is your favorite time of the school day?
• What do you like about your teachers?
• Did you do anything special today?
• What do you wish you could learn at school?

Talk About Emotions

A surefire way to get into the area of building stronger bonds is by talking about your emotions. You don’t need to do this every day, but asking good questions every once in a while can be a great way to have more open communication that could improve your family. Here are some questions you could ask:

• Did anything happen today that you didn’t like? What did you do about it?
• What makes you sad?
• What hurts your feelings?
• What type of emotion do you think you show the most?
• Do you ever get angry and not know why?

Use questions like those to start forming deeper bonds. If one of your kids doesn’t want to answer right now, then don’t force them. You want to learn about each other, but you don’t want to make your family feel uncomfortable. 

Bonding Rituals

While you can undoubtedly build stronger family bonds by asking questions and having deep conversations, you can also forge more meaningful connections through engaging rituals. Here are a few new routines you can add to your daily life to create stronger bonds, even if you only have a few minutes:

Cook and Eat Dinner Together

One of the easiest places to have bonding conversations is around the dinner table. That’s why most experts recommend that families come together at dinner and shut off all phones and electronic devices as they talk about their days and ask some of the questions discussed previously. Even if you all have busy schedules, there’s always a chance to sit around the dinner table.

But Why Stop There?

In addition to eating together, you can bring things to another level by cooking and preparing the meal together as well. Give each person a job in the kitchen, and you can all have fun along the way. In addition to bonding, there's something fulfilling about sitting down and enjoying a meal you prepared yourself, so this routine could be good for your family’s mental health.

Family Game Night

Even if your family is busy all week long, you can carve out some time for a family game night on Saturday or Sunday. Each week, everyone can pick their favorite game, and you can all sit around the table or out on the patio and have a ball. While you play, you can all catch up and have some great bonding conversations.

Get Outside

After being cooped up in school and work all day, it can be refreshing to get out of the house, and you can use the outdoors as a chance to bond. While outdoor fun can include trips to the park, it can also be as simple as taking a walk around the block after dinner to walk off your meal. While you’re walking and taking in the fresh air, you can easily talk about your day.

Do Chores Together

One of the reasons why you and your family may be so busy is that you're all doing chores, so combine work and fun by doing those chores as a family. In less than 15 minutes a day, you can do the laundry, sweep the garage together, rake leaves, fix something on the house, or any number of other group projects. You'll have a chance to bond as a family, and you'll all have the satisfaction of completing a big task together.

Make Time No Matter What

If all else fails, then find a time when everyone will be home and call a family meeting. During the meeting, ask how everyone is doing and if anyone has felt unheard or if they have something they need to talk about, but they haven't found the time. It's essential that you ensure that everyone in the family is heard – it's the only way to truly build stronger family bonds. Don't put time with your family on the back burner. Enjoy time with them today and form bonds that will stay strong forever.

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