Wholesome Family Recreation

“Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” 

 ~ The Family: A Proclamation to the World

I would consider activities like getting outside in nature as wholesome family recreation. I also don’t think that all wholesome activities have to be active and outside. I think playing board games or painting to decorating the house are fun things that involve everyone interacting with one another.

I think about all the activities that my family did when I was a kid. We liked to go for walks, bike riding, playing basketball and jumping on the trampoline. My dad also likes to travel so we in turn have learned to love traveling. Every summer my family would take road trips. We would always complain but looking back those road trips are what we remember most. I’ve been able to go all across the country and see a lot of historical landmarks. My mom also liked to have us write letters and draw pictures for family members far away or those we knew on missions. As we have all gotten older we still do some of those same things. At Thanksgiving and Christmas we like to play basketball and have a little tournament. We all like to go kayaking and canoeing.

What would you consider “wholesome family recreation”?

Good, Better, Best  

Elder Oaks said, “Super family activities may be good for children, but they are not always better than one-on-one time with a loving parent.” This made me think of my family. I do remember all our family vacations and how they drew us together but moments that really meant something to me were the ones where I was one on one with my parents or a sibling.

Elder Oaks, “Family experts have warned against what they call “the overscheduling of children.” In the last generation children are far busier and families spend far less time together. Among many measures of this disturbing trend are the reports that structured sports time has doubled, but children’s free time has declined by 12 hours per week, and unstructured outdoor activities have fallen by 50 percent.

The number of those who report that their “whole family usually eats dinner together” has declined 33 percent. This is most concerning because the time a family spends together “eating meals at home [is] the strongest predictor of children’s academic achievement and psychological adjustment.” Family mealtimes have also been shown to be a strong bulwark against children’s smoking, drinking, or using drugs. There is inspired wisdom in this advice to parents: what your children really want for dinner is you.

Participating in activities with your children will bless your families and cultivate your relationships. I think that what Elder Oaks said is really what is important, the one-on-one interactions that let them know you love and care for them.