Mental health is a tricky thing within any family, I suspect. And we are not different. We eat dinner together almost every night of the year, and sometimes the kids join us to watch TV after that. But it is very easy to everyone to retreat to their own screen, and I am pretty sure that this doesn’t produce terrific mental-health outcomes.
One thing we have done is have an internet siesta from 11 until 2 on weekdays for kids if they are at home. It’s not popular, but I am certain that unbroken hours in front of YouTube cannot be good for anyone’s mental health.
The other thing we have been doing in playing games after dinner. Like many people, we did this a bit during the lockdowns but didn’t persist in the habit. But we’ve been doing to for about three weeks, and I think it is helping us be a bit more connected, and I’ve been enjoying the company of Nicky and the kids.
So far we have been playing:
- Scrabble (surprisingly popular, with the kids getting lots of help from Nicky, who always wins)
- Uno
- Jenga
- Yahtzee
- Cluedo
- Cards Against Humanity
- 21 (boring an unlikely to be repeated)
- Bananagrams (surprisingly fun)
- Dominos (which we don’t really understand the rules of
- Connect 4
We take turns to pick. It’s my turn to pick tomorrow and I’m going for Yahtzee