Families That Play Together Stay Together

Today We Live On A Ball of Confusion
Not of Cohesion

Click on the title above; listen for a short time about a description of how we live today.

Like Rodney King, we too ask, "can't we all get along?"

In an article called "The Family That Plays Together, Stays Together (2021)," we find that family play time is scientifically proven to strengthen family bonds and promote healthy child development.  

The science is clear.

Playing together as a family is one of the most important things you can do for your family’s well-being.

Family fun brings joy and light-heartedness to the home, reduces stress levels (for all family members!), helps heal grudges and relationship strife, promotes family bonds, and supports healthy child development. Playing family games promotes trust that our society all too readily give up for their own priorities. Family Games open individual member minds to perspectives beyond their own.

It’s also clear that our fast-paced, technology-driven society and busy schedules (pre-COVID, of course), makes opportunities for simple play seem more scarce and even old-fashioned.

We are grappling with the convenience of Netflix, the lure of video games, a million different after-school activities (again, pre-COVID), and the addictiveness of all of our little devices.  These distractions also make it harder for us to give our children our undivided attention during old-fashioned play.

But carving out time to play together, and simply have a good time together, might very well be the most important thing you do for your family.

Do you wonder why people take guns into their hands to resolve real or delusional conflict?  Sure, we can continue to drain the governmental tax coffers arguing for counseling, and tighten the freedom screws by adding strings to gun licensing.

I am about to say something that you may not like.  You don't have to like it.  But your not liking it does not make what I will be saying untrue:

The gun lobby is correct;
guns don't kill people;
people kill people.

Unless our society cares enough about each other to trust our abilities to resolve our conflicts without killing each other, there will never be enough the government can do to make us feel safe. With our distractions, hell-bent freedom consciousness, artificial reality lifestyles and me-first attitudes, crime will never be dealt with fairly, income levels will never be equal, restitution will never be enough to right longstanding wrongs.

We have been trying to deal with these inequalities since mankind was created.  Do you seriously think it has gotten any worse or better?  Until we all can treat each other equally as we want to be treated, we don't deserve a better outcome than what we have experienced.  And I am talking about the whole world here.

Look at our country's track record.  Since 1776, the United States has fought a World-Level War every three years.  Each one of those cost the United States an average of $113 billion in 2022 dollars and lose at least a quarter million lives doing it.

And the worst of it is that the underlying reasons for warring are not resolved; our country will face another war within three years if the future is anything like our history.  That's 246 years worth of proof, and going back to creation times, we have always tried to do things the same way while expecting a different result.

Albert Einstein says that's the perfect definition of insanity; doing the same things the same way and expecting a different result.  We have to do somethings drastically different.

Rebuilding the Family Unit must be the first place to start in rebuilding our societal cohesion and trust.

Developing and playing family games is a start, but there are many, many fundamental changes in all of our dispositions that need to take place to make any improvement.

This blog will be offering five to ten new games to play with their family members.  Below are just a few in the developing stages. The games are new, although my own family has been playing some of them for quite a while.

I expect to use the blog to provide game directions, supplies, or other created mementos and cards with Commons copyright license(s).  Use privileges will be offered in return for a choice of donation mechanisms for charitable opportunities that may arise from time to time. Some of those charitable drives, to name but a few, could relate to sending Bibles or providing water and food to areas where they are needed.

A Singles Bible Study mentee I taught back in 1998, went to seminary and had resurrected a planted church in the Dallas area and his congregation is ready to build a new church to handle the growth of his church.

It will be possible for game directions and supplies to be made available in the future, but it will be difficult to do so without donations. So in that sense they will be provided for free and everyone will be free to donate whatever they can afford or feel the games are worth.  I will try to maintain their free status for as long as your support and generosity will allow.

I am confident that you and your family will get more enjoyment out of the games than any estimated monetary value I place on them. I would appreciate feedback on improvements and ideas you may have. But, I believe your testimonials of the impact that the games made or did not make on your family could help enormously to verify their value to possible new blog subscribers.

Here is a list of some of the family games I will be working to provide on this blog.

• A Word Wiser
• Acronym-piction
• Six Senses and All
• That Is All You Need To Say
• Words Gone Wild
• Trivial Games Time
• Test-A-Times

Your referrals by comment of anyone who might appreciate these Family Games would be appreciated.

Please email me, Mr. George, at peacertnow@aol.com with your thoughts and feedback.