You can also listen to ways to destress as a family on the Parenting in Real Life Podcast. Listen here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
It can get chaotic when dealing with a lot of things in a household. Kids can pick up their parents’ stress and can even mirror the anxiety they see which causes a cycle of overwhelmed kids and parents. So as a family, you have to learn how to manage stress and unwind together.
There are a lot of ways to destress as a family. Some might work for you and some may even seem to make you more stressed. It all depends on family dynamics and the activities you enjoy. There are lots of articles that offer tips, so figure out the ones that work best for your family.
Here are 6 Ways to Destress as a Family:
1. Take a walk, move indoors or outdoors
Movement is a great way to destress as it releases that pent-up energy and gets you to calm down, think, and lower stress levels.
- Take a walk or even dance just to get yourself moving.
- Go for family bike rides as a way of exercising with the family.
- Visit your local rec center and go swimming.
2. Play a Game
We like family games, but feelings can quickly get hurt or kids can get mad if they didn’t win. If your family doesn’t do great with games, maybe skip this one but this could also be a great way to teach your kids how to be good sports. Here are some games to play in different places:
- Grandpa Beck Games have games for all ages like ‘Reign of the Dragoness’. (Use the code Parenting for 15% off!)
- Great Dalmuti is a great card game and a lowkey family classic.
- Play car games to make driving more exciting and less boring.
- Video games from Nintendo can even be fun to play as a family. Our favorite to play together is Mario Kart.
Here is a list of some of our favorite family games!
3. Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness, and Box Breathing
These are some of the best ways to ease your mind and let worry and stress melt away. Meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga can charge you after a busy day or calm you down before a huge event. These are some of our favorite ways to calm down.
- Headspace is a good app that teaches mindfulness to kids or adults.
- Cosmic Kids is a YouTube channel that makes yoga for kids more fun while they tell stories.
- Apple One offers a more athletic approach to yoga.
- A great meditation option for women is the Women’s Meditation Network that has 11 different podcasts for different needs. From sleep to anxiety to daily affirmations.
4. Be Creative
Arts and crafts can be a great way to express yourself and release your emotions and thoughts in a more creative way. These are some of our favorite ways to create.
- Cricut crafts help kids create art projects like cards and stickers.
- Art for Kids Hub is an art YouTube channel that shows you how to do fun and easy art projects.
- Let’s Make Art for Kids on Youtube teaches you how to make watercolor art that kids can follow.
- Andrea Nelson Art on Instagram makes fantastic and cool art that is easy to follow.
5. Read a Book or Tell a Story
Reading to your kids can help them develop their imagination, it helps their reading skills, and it forms good memories with your kids. It also makes bedtime something to look forward to. I love taking my kids to the library and let them pick put some books they want to read. If reading isn’t your favorite thing, you can make up your own stories using your kids as the main character to make it personal.
6. Laugh Together
Hands down, nothing relieves stress more than a good joke. It helps your family not take things too seriously and can even brighten up their day.
- Laughing and smiling is a proven ways to boost a person’s mood.
- Google is a great resource for funny knock-knock jokes.
- We also like to do sweet and sour at the dinner table and ask our kids what was something sweet and something sour from their day.
These are the activities that we try to do as a family to relieve our stress and relax. Some of them work great for us while others have always mixed reactions. But at the end of the day, these tips help our family relieve stress and create a way for us to bond together.
What activities does your family does to destress or unwind?