Connecting to the family

As many of us are now in a semi-quarantined state, we are still trying to navigate this new virtual way of communication and while virtual calls it doesn’t quite hit the spot like an actual hug, but while physical touch may be out of our hands (pun intended), meaningful communication and connecting isn’t.

This post is targeted at families that are in the same home together, in this post I want to list a few ways that can help break up your isolation and help you to connect in interesting ways.

Set a time to check in daily: If you are working from home then you might already have a routine going for you, your start time, breaks and when to end your workday, your break times (Lunch, dinner, tea … etc) can be used as times to check-in with the family, where all the house members take a break and make an effort to join, this becomes an enjoyable pass time and helps to check in with everyone in a relaxed vibe.

Go down Memory Lane: If you have a family album around or if your family is a bit ahead on the digitalisation bandwagon and all your family photos are already on the cloud, going through old photos together as a family is quite an enjoyable pass time. You might find people that you have always wanted to connect to, stories from your families past and if anything else it would a please reminder of what how you were and your journey so far.

Old Family Recipes: Each family have their recipes that they have invented or have been passed on generation to generation, asking your grandparents and relatives about your favourite dishes and documenting your findings is another way of connecting to the wider family over something that unites us all, our love of good food.

Document the Family Journey: One of the more creative activities and definitely a favourite of mine is collecting information and documents on my immediate families history. This could be as generic as writing down significant events (Births, deaths, marriages, travels, moving, … Etc) or detailed to individuals in the family (graduation, trips, accomplishments), this activity is something the family can maintain and would serve as a written history. You will find as you collect the information that you will be able to see the family in a new light, one where your journey now reads like a story and you get to decide how you want this story to go.

I hope I have provided you with ideas on connecting with family and that at least one of the above suggestions has resonated with you on some level.

If you have any other ideas that have worked for you and think other people might benefit from please share in the comments below.

Always remember to look after each other.