5 Ways a Home Game Room Can Jumpstart Your Family Time
Spending time together is good for your family’s bonds, both in the immediate sense and over the long-term. In today’s fast-paced world, with the barrage of entertainment options available, though, scheduling time as a family isn’t always easy. A home game room is a great way to bring the family together. Here are a few ways a game room can jumpstart your family time.
1. A game room is a place for you all to play together.
While play is essential for young children to learn important skills, it’s also good for every member of your family, providing relaxation and relief from stress. Adults and older kids alike often forget to incorporate some fun into their days and having a physical space like a dedicated recreation room can serve as a reminder to stop rushing, fretting, or overworking and enjoy some of your time.
2. A game room can close the gap between toddlers and teenagers.
If you have kids at a range of ages, you know how difficult it can be to please them all and provide entertainment everyone can enjoy together. Table games are one of the few areas in which the whole family can intersect.
While your youngest children probably can’t play pool or a game of air hockey on their own, they can start learning these types of games as soon as they’re old enough to hold a pool cue or a striker. Older kids can help younger kids learn by taking it easy on them as an opponent or by playing on their teams. It might be hard to find a board game your entire family likes to play, but kids of most ages enjoy table games, even if they’re not very good at them yet.
3. A game room gets you unplugged.
Plenty of families do their bonding over video games or TV, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In moderation. Too much screen time can be detrimental, affecting both physical and mental health. Putting in a screen-free family game room gives everyone in your household a reason to turn off and unplug. It gets your family on their feet, and requires some level of physical activity, something many members of U.S. families get in too short a supply.
4. With a home game room, you don’t have to leave the house.
It’s a given, but one of the biggest benefits of a home game room is that you don’t have to leave the house. A home gaming space gives your family something that feels like an outing without having to actually drive anywhere.
While it’s quite nice to take your family out for their entertainment from time to time, the minutes spent getting to and from a destination cuts into the time you get to spend playing as a family, and you are unlikely to do it every day. By having a recreation space at the house, you make it easier to stop for breaks that don’t take too much time and to turn fun into a daily habit.
5. A game room helps you connect with family you don’t know as well.
While a home game room will get most of its use by the people who live in the house, it’s also an ideal place to reconnect with family you don’t see as often. If you have an extended family get-together only once or twice a year, it can sometimes feel as though near strangers are hanging out in your house. A game room gives cousins a cool place to hang, and something to do together, so it doesn’t feel like everyone is just sitting around not knowing what to say.
With the production of gaming tables becoming more streamlined, and prices getting cheaper, putting a game room in your home doesn’t have to be a budget-breaker. If you’ve got a little extra space in your home, you can add one, two, or three gaming tables (maybe even four or five!) for less than $500. And if you don’t have enough space for an indoor game room, you can always take it outdoors, creating a functional outdoor play space that both young and old, immediate and extended family members can enjoy.
Written by Shawna Newman for KICK Foosball.
