It is important to have family home evening every week. This is a time to spend with your family and to teach your children about the gospel, and about life. It is a time that should really be positive and not negative. There may be times when family home evening becomes frustrating because of the behavior of children in your family.
It can be frustrating to have a lesson for a toddler who just won’t sit still. You may fill as though your work is not worth anything. You may also feel as though he is distracting the other family members from the lesson. You should not give up. He is listening as he zooms around the room. You may consider having a hands on activity to have him complete while you are talking. He will be listening while he is working, and he will not be a distraction to other children.
Your elementary aged children may complain that the lessons are too long or too boring. If this is the case, try to make the lessons more fun and varied. Occasionally you may need to have a lesson in which you sit down and talk the entire time. You can look for games that illustrate the lesson, have coloring pages or big visual aids to make family home evening more fun. If you have your children teach this helps to make it different every week as well.
Your teenager may not want to come to family home evening either. This is a tricky issue, and you should examine why she does not want to come before you decide how to approach it. If your daughter is simply too busy, you may consider cutting back on her activities. You may give her the choice to either come to family home evening without complaining or to cut back on the activities. Often teenagers just need to learn about scheduling and planning.
If your daughter does not want to come because she is in a spiritually rebellious phase, you need to approach the situation with prayer. You may opt to invite her every week, and not insist that she come. (This may be an option is she is turning the experience into a negative one for the whole family.) You may plan a fun activity with the family every other week, and expect her to attend. You may simply expect her to attend. AS you make this a matter of prayer you will be guided to do what is best for your family.
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