Wholesome Family Recreation: Building Strong Families

In this world that we live in now, there are so many different sources of entertainment.  This does not necessarily mean that we are happy.When we try to find happiness for ourselves, thats all we do.  We find things that will make only ourselves happy.  How sad this is when we can find all the happiness that we could possibly need through a family.

Contemporary Happiness

"But many of us have seen a pattern of behavior where a parent, hoping to find individual comfort or pleasure, engages obsessively in recreation apart from family.  As a result, such an excessive obsession for a recreational activity may cause discord and disunity amongst family members rather than achieving the goal to strengthen family ties." (Widmer, M.A., Ellis, G.D., & Munson, W.W. (2003). Development of the Arstotelian ethical behavior in leisure scale short form. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 37(3), 256-274.).

www.theminimalists.com 

There is something called the hedonic adaptation or the hedonic treadmill.  This is an important term because it explains why we look for pleasure and comfort because we think that it is going to make us happy.  But we then become accustomed to those comforts/pleasures and do not see it as such anymore.  It is not something that is new and exciting anymore.  It is something that starts to have no influence on us at all.

"Research suggests that feelings arising from overcoming challenges are rated as much more meaningful than pleasurable activities, such as watching television, which pale by comparison." (Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness:  Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillments. New York: Free Press.)

Principles of Wholesome Recreation
Parallel Activities: involve multiple members of the family doing the same thing but not interacting with each other very much.

• watching movies and television

Joint Activities:  involve high levels of communication and interdependence.

• canoeing, tennis, chess, rock climbling etc.

Independent Activities:  those undertaken alone by individuals.

http://www.lds.org

**** REMEMBER that family recreation should still be the priority over individual pursuits

Wholesome Recreation and Children
Youth observe their parents.  The biggest thing that parents should do is spend time with their children playing.  They should be a model of good sportsmanship, kindness, and fair play.  Parents should push their children to be apart of several different types of activities.  They should not be stuck on one specific activity because it can limit the growth of the child.

What type of activities could you do with little children?

Wholesome Recreation and Adolescents
We all know that as children grow into teenagers, they show less of an effort of wanting to hang out with their family.  They want to have their independence while mostly hanging out with their friends.  Although it may be difficult, family recreation can create a positive home environment and attitude.  When adolescents have healthy identities they are less likely to fall into peer pressure or be influenced by the media.  

"Our own research demonstrates that engaging in challenging outdoor adventures, like learning to rock climb, backpack, fly fish, and mountain bike, promotes healthy adolescent identity development. "   (Duerden, M.D., Widmer, M., Taniguchi, S., & McCoy, J. K. (2009).  Adventures in identity development:  The impact of adventure recreation on adolescent identity development.  Identity, 9, 341-359.)

What type of other activities can you think of that would benefit teenagers?

camprecovery.crchealth.com 

We tend to live in a world that both parents are having to work.  This can be an issue when children are being affected.  When parents are spending all of their time working, they are taking that time away from their children.  They are not getting the opportunity to have those family recreation activities together.  

"Wholesome recreation often should include service learning or volunteering opportunities, like tutoring peers, cleaning up the local environment, and helping the elderly.  Church programs, Boy Scouts, and after-school programs provide opportunities to serve."  (Catalano, R. F., Berflund, M. L., Ryan, J. A. M., Lonczak, H. S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2002).  Positive youth development in the United States:  Research findings on evaluations of positive youth development programs.  Prevention and Treatment, 5, 1-117.)

What are some service opportunities that you can do with your children or teenagers (or even as a child or teenager)?