We all (most of us at least) love to spend time with our friends and family. One of things we love to do at home is to have a family game night. In an age of technology and digital devices that seem to dominate our lives (have you ever seen a teenager without a phone in their hands? If you have, it has probably been surgically removed) it makes a refreshing change to turn off the television, put down the phones and games consoles and do something different.
When I was growing up we regularly had a family game night, we played a lot of board games and thankfully the playing of board games is becoming fashionable again and getting increasingly popular, especially now that there are so many available to suit all types of people, interests and skill levels. They are definitely the best way to spend quality time with family and friends. COVID and lockdowns showed us just how important social interaction is, and it doesn’t mean having to go out somewhere to enjoy ourselves – it can be just as much fun at home.
Board games, tabletop games, card games and party games offer more than entertainment, they encourage social skills, concentration, creativity and can even help to educate. Then there are the other benefits of learning patience, sharing, turn taking, how to win and lose gracefully and, with younger children, can even help with social skills and speech & language skills.
Family game nights are not only great fun and an excellent of spending quality family time together, but they are also perfect for actually sitting and talking together, not just passing comments as you pass each other going in and out of rooms. And for adults they also have the added bonus of keeping the brain active, helping with mental stimulation and memory function, so it is not just kids that benefit!
There is an abundance of games of the market for kids, teenagers, adults and families. No longer is the choice just limited to moving a playing piece around the board – there are escape room games, logic games, energetic party games and lots more. Some require a great deal of time to be invested in their game play – take Monopoly for example, played properly can take a good few hours. Others require very little time and can be completed in 10 minutes (our favourite at the minute is the fast card matching game Burger Party, although with an over-enthusiastic teenager, hands can get a bit sore). Then there are the trivia / quiz games – we are absolutely loving playing Family Quiz Night, a trivia game with kids and adults’ questions so that everybody can play together. If you want something completely different, then we have been really enjoying escape room games. And if you want games to play without the kids when your friends visit, there are some excellent fun games for the adults like Pan Am and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window to enjoy a more grown-up Game Night.
Sitting around the table for some quality face-to-face gaming is far superior than just sitting around watching television, it is also a lot more fun, and the excellent social aspect helps bring family and friends closer together – a fantastic bonding experience for everybody. Having fun and playing together is also perfect for helping to relieve stress as you can have a great laugh together – win or lose!
We just love playing games and really look forward to game night. The kids are always asking what game we will be playing of an evening, they enjoy the family time as much as the adults and are quite happy for their phones to go away and the televisions switched off. As you’re here, check out our game reviews and see if anything piques your interest to get you, your family and friends around the table playing, laughing and competing together – but most of all, spending quality time together. So grab your drinks, snacks and seats and start playing.
Click here to read my Board Games reviews
