Many families do many things by themselves. Eat, watch Netflix (Yes, you can do that with your family), or just walking in the park. Especially teenagers.

A home is not a home without a family. It would just be a house. Which for some people it is. And personally, I think that’s sad. I think that people should take time out of their schedules and spend time with the ones they love, and that responsibility is on the parents.

In my opinion, kids should be raised with love. Small things as eating together (Without phones!), or spending the Sunday together can make a big difference. In many other countries, people spend more time together than the average 15-20 minutes most Americans spend. Barely 60 years ago, the average was 90 minutes! What happened? Because we are so busy, we often don’t have time or just forget to spend time with our families. 

I’m an exchange student, and I’ll tell you this: Americans either don’t eat together, or they maybe spend 15-30 doing so. You might think that 30 minutes is a long time, but in reality it really isn’t. Where I’m from (Denmark) people usually eat together for at least 30 minutes EVERY DAY, with few exceptions. My family often eats around 6pm and finishes around 8pm. If we have a party of sorts, we might invite people over for 2pm, and begin eating, and remain eating until around 7pm. 

People might argue that they don’t have enough time to eat with their families. To that I say: You don’t have to eat for more than 15 minutes, just the fact that you take your time to be with your family shows that you care. Others might say that the people in their family aren’t home at the same time. I request that you simply do something, little things even, to get closer to your family. It just has to be something that you do together, not because you have to, but because you want to. Have your parents help you with homework, help them cook dinner, cook dinner for them so they aren’t stressed about all the chores they have to complete when they get home. You could even say that you want to walk around the park with them, or go grocery shopping. 

Remember to not only think about what you want, but think about the rest of your family as well.