Family Game Night

Despite what the title sounds like, this does not have to take hours and hours to do.  Family game night can include dinner and multiple games or just one game.  Despite what specialists say YOU know what works for YOUR family, and if you're killing yourself trying to live up to these grand ideas of what family time should be like you will stress about it and probably grow to hate it.  So family game night should be fun and stress free.  So how do we get there?

1. Let everyone know when it is.  Once a month, once a week, it doesn't matter if you tell your family members the morning of "Oh Jake, you can't go out to the movies tonight.  Tonight is family game night, and we're going to have fun."  No, it doesn't work like that.
2. Make rules for family game night:  Are the neighborhood kids or adopted kids allowed or is it just for family members?  Do your teens need to ask for the night off from work, or will work be the exception to the rule for attendance?  How long will it last, will it be for hours and hours of fun, meaning game after game (or one game of Monopoly)?
3. If dinner is included I'd suggest a simple dinner, with a simple clean up.  Pizza and paper plates are about as simple as they come, even when you're making the pizza from scratch.  Have some snacks on hand regardless, because winning builds up an appetite and do you want everyone grumbling about hunger instead of laughing?
4. Let's go back to Monopoly for a second.  Are there any games that one person in your family loves, but has the rest of the crew high-tailing it for the road?  Perhaps allow each person to choose a game for family game night, or allow one person to plan the night on a rotating schedule.  Yes this means that someone will get stuck playing a game they dislike, but they will eventually get a game they like.
5. Family game night does not have to be about spending money.  I'll repeat myself.  FAMILY GAME NIGHT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ABOUT SPENDING MONEY.  There are plenty of games that are free, but it will take a few minutes of internet research and patience.  Let's see:
1. Pictionary (grab a few of the kids favorite books and or movies and write out cards in advance or allow the kids to pick these things and write down the answer before drawing.  Extra good parenting points if you can link it to what they are learning in school)
2. Charades, see above
3. Freeze (grab the radio and dance away til someone turns the volume off)
4. Simon Says
5. Card games, okay so you have to buy a pack of cards from the dollar store.  $1.00 and some internet research and you'll have more then twenty different games.
6. Hide and Seek
7. Hot Potato (use a sock, ewwwww)
8. Balloon Volley Ball
9. Memory Game (put several things on the table, give everyone ten seconds to look at it, when they close their eyes remove something, and see who gets it right)
10. I Spy
11. Tic Tac Toe or other pen and paper games
6. Do you have some old games that are missing pieces?  Make a new game out of it.  Why not have your best friend do the same thing and invite everyone over to share the new old games?
7. In fact if you're inviting your best friend, why not invite the neighborhood once in a blue moon?