How To Encourage Your Teenager To Spend Time With Family

It can be difficult to get the family to spend time together, especially when you have a mix of teenagers and younger children.

Teenagers grow out of wanting to spend time with their parents and unfortunately, it is just one of those things that can happen in life. However, it doesn’t mean you have to let it happen.

While it may take more effort to spend time with your teenager, it is possible to keep up a relationship with them and include them in family events, days or occasions.

Here are some tips on encouraging your teenager to spend time with family:

Make sure everyone in the family is involved in family life.

Essentially, if your teenager is not willing to spend time with you and the rest of the family, is it because an older sibling or a parent behaves the same? For anyone to spend time together, they must see it as a part of family life and not a chore to be dreaded. Have a rule that everyone must spend time together as a family even for a few hours a week. 

Make it fun.

Though you may have younger kids, try and do something everyone will love. It is ok to leave your teenager at home if they really don’t want to do something like mini-golf or going to a play centre.

If it isn’t age-appropriate, you’re only going to annoy them by forcing them to come along. What happens then is, they will not want to go when there is something else on - even when it might be suitable for them too. 

Encourage your kids to cook together.

Encouraging your kids to cook together and meal-plan is great for easy and regular family time. It gives everyone an opportunity to spend time together and most teenagers love nothing more than learning about food and how to cook it.

Cup of coffee with spoon beside it
Going for coffee with your teen can be a great way to spend quality time together.

Watch movies together.

Watching movies is another thing that teenagers like doing and if you can get them to the cinema; even better! Binge-watching Netflix is another good option and teenagers will enjoy spending time with you while you watch a programme together. 

Go for dinner or grab a coffee together.

Often teenagers love sitting and ‘chillin’ for a while as it gives them time to relax. Other things that encourage your teen to spend time with family is having breakfast together, eating dinner and having technology-free times to talk to one another.

Work together as a family.

Get working on things together and get all the family to paint, tidy the garden and do some household chores as families who help each other are more likely to have better relationships. 

Don’t be overwhelming as teenagers do need their space too and if they try to spend time with family be sure to allow them some privacy and time to see their friends.

A lot of ‘give and take’ means your teenager will understand the need to spend time with family while being gifted their own time to do what they like with friends. 

Hopefully, with these tips, you and your family can enjoy some time together. 

Emma Hayes

Emma Hayes is a busy mum to two girls aged 17 and 11 and is married to her childhood sweetheart.

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