Family Story Time

Here at Parents Who, we tend to advocate for putting down your smartphone or DSLR and being present in your life events as they unfold.

But that’s not to say that enjoying family photos and videos shouldn’t have an essential place in your family time.

After all, it’s one thing to take a bunch of pictures and another thing to actually look at them and enjoy them with your family!

One thing I want to put an emphasis on with today’s post is the importance to build your family’s history by telling family stories in an intentional way.

We use a method which is effective for our family and I believe it will enrich and enhance your family quality time, too.

1. Family Story Time

You might not know this, but if you take pictures and makes videos of your kids you possess a treasure trove of media which will be more interesting to them than just about anything else.

Of course, the problem many parents run into is keeping all the pictures and videos organized in a way that makes them usable to your family.

Fortunately, there are many good online solutions which solve this problem and my wife Sarah has even taken the pain out of the process by outlining how to use our favorite online solution in some previous posts.

But once your photos and videos are organized and easily accessible, how do you go about enjoying them with your family?

I’d like to suggest that you try scheduling a Family Story Time one day soon.

Set aside an hour of time on a day that all of the members of your family has free and clear it with each member a week in advance. A good time for our family to schedule this is after dinner on a weekday.

Then, pull up some family pictures and videos on your computer or TV and gather round.

Yes, this is a post advocating gathering your family around a screen. I bet that many of you never thought you would see a post from us which advocates this!

But we believe that screen time has its place in family life, especially when that screen time is spent intentionally.

So, which photos and videos should you choose and how can you facilitate this time as an intentional, family-enriching experience?

2. Make Stories the Focus

We find that if we simply click through pictures or passively watch family videos we miss out on the really valuable experiences that this scheduled time can provide to our family.

Instead, treat this hour as an opportunity to crystallize the stories, characters and “legends” that have naturally occurred in your family history.

For example, many of you have photos and videos from the recent holidays which you have hopefully uploaded and organized by now (If you haven’t done this yet or don’t have an organizational method for your family yet, please let our articles about This Life serve as your guide).

Now is a good time to look through those pictures and watch those videos from the holidays, while the experiences and stories are still fresh in your minds.

The key is when you come to a picture or video which prompts the telling of a story, stop and let the story unfold.

For example, when you come to a picture which shows a gathering of extended family, take this opportunity to tell an interesting anecdote about the rarely-seen uncle in the picture.

If this story leads your kids to ask more questions, stop the slide show and address the questions right then. Let this story organically lead to other stories.

What’s even more fun and valuable is when a picture or video leads you to recall a picture or video from your own past.

For example, maybe a picture of your child excitedly opening a gift reminds you of a picture or video you have of yourself excitedly opening a similar gift when you were a child.

This is the moment when having an organized system for your pictures and videos pays invaluable dividends. Browse to the picture or video and pull it up right then and there.

I can almost guarantee this will result in delight for you and for your children. For us, this often can lead us down a totally unplanned tangent of fun as we identify similar and contrasting themes from our childhood and our children’s, or relate funny stories from our own youth.

Despite their young age, Mr. B and Mr. C (our twin little boys) have noticed things in pictures and videos and made connections which would have never occurred to Sarah or me.

We have found that certain themes can become a family “legend” or story of your family history, to be lovingly told and retold time and again.

If your first experiment with scheduling a Family Story Time is a hit, consider making it a recurring fixture of your family each month.

In Conclusion

At Parents Who we advocate for putting down your camera and being present in the moment as much as you can. But we also recognize that the pictures and videos you take can be sources of joy and connection for your family.

Try an experiment of using your organized and uploaded pictures and videos as the centerpiece of an intentional and engaging Family Story Time.

Not only will this put your family photos and videos to use in an enriching and intentional way, you will also find an endless source of fun in telling and retelling the stories which emerge.

The end result could the stuff of years and even generations of family legends and family history.