10 of the Best Ways to Make Happy Memories at Home
What kind of memories are you making at your house?
Not just holidays and celebrations. Not traditions. Not even scrapbooks, digital photos, videos, or anything you put on social media to save for the future.
But normal everyday moments that are planting seeds of memories in your children and your spouse.
I’m talking about HOME! Family! People! The dailiness carried in our hearts.
Home is where you “let our hair down.” Where you relax and reveal the real you.
And…
Too often where you and I act on our moods. Where we fail to think before we speak. So, here are some ways to fill the average day with the kind of memories you’ll think back on with joy.
10 of the Best Ways to Make Happy Memories at Home
1. Use your manners. Say “please and thank you.” Teach table manners. Teach and show respect. Nice matters even at home!
“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” ~Emily Post
2. Leave your bad mood at the door. – If that’s not possible, use words to talk about your mood rather than emotionally taking that bad mood out on your family. Memorize a verse like 1 Peter 5:6–7 to repeat when you’re mood tanks…
So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
3. Remember accidents happen and it’s just stuff. – It’s good stewardship to value and care for our belongings, but remember it’s still just stuff. Everyone makes mistakes. Accident happens.
[Tweet “People are priceless… everything else is just stuff.”]
“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” ~Henry David Thoreau
What are you willing to exchange for your stuff?
4. Say “I’m sorry.” Don’t go to bed angry. – Don’t let your pride become more important that your relationships. Sometimes it’s hardest to say “I’m sorry” to our spouses and our children.
“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.” ~Author Unknown
And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. Ephesians 4:26–27
5. Schedule family time. – Eat dinner together often, have game night, story night, or movie night; read together, go on family outings, laugh together, worship together, and pray together.
“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” ~
“At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, a parent.” ~Barbara Bush
6. Celebrate the positive. – Celebrate accomplishments, find the good in challenges… help your spouse and children notice what’s good and live with hope. Celebrate working together. Celebrate family.
“A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.” ~Author Unknown
“Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life!” ~Albert Einstein
7. Be kind. – Sometimes we treat complete strangers better than the people with whom we live. Talk and act at home in ways that show your family how much you love and value them.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:31–32
8. Work together. – Projects that are done together get done more quickly and everyone shares in achieving the goal.
Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Philippians 2:2
9. Play together. – Have fun. All work and no play not only “makes Jack a dull boy,” it makes a family disinterested and unresponsive.
“The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.” ~Erma Bombeck
10. Say “I love you” often. – You can’t say it too often and when you say it—mean it. Make a special way to say “I love you” to your family. In sign-language. Or by adding words like: “to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond, or forever and always,” anything that makes the words special and set apart for just your family. You will never regret the times you said, “I love you.”
Saying “I love you” is a promise. Maybe the most important promise you will ever make. Three words that connect hearts. ~Deb Wolf
So, the question of the day is… What happy memories are you making at home?
Finally, what is your favorite way to make a happy memory?
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I am often stressing to my children that we are a team and we help each other out and take care of each other. I always want them be considerate and be a team player. I need to work on playing with them and not just watching them play. That is my weakest parenting skill unfortunately. My husband is constantly reminding me to just play.
What a great way to help your children look at life together. Teams win or lose as one. Great tip! As far as playing… I had trouble when my children we at home. I think there is always some job or project to work on that pulls us away from play. My husband was better at playing, too. Good for you for making the decision to work on that! Blessings to you!
Such a wonderful post 🙂
I love this!
One of my favorite things to do is have my little man help me cook. He loves to help in the kitchen and it’s something little but it is something we can do together but still get the job done. He also likes to help vacuum.
Enjoy every minute of the days he loves to help. We just enjoyed a visit with our four-year-old grandson. Love how he’s happy just being included in what’s happening. What a wonderful blessing!
Thanks for sharing. I love finding ways to make memories with my kids.
On a side note, can you tell me how you found the “confirm you are not a spammer” button below? I am a new blogger, and I have been looking for something like this. I’m currently using a captcha plug in, but I’d rather avoid making people type in a captcha. Thanks.
Sheryl, I use CommentLuv as my comment plugin. I think the checkbox is part of the plugin. I looked to see if it was part of my theme’s settings and didn’t notice anything there. I’m sorry I can’t give you more specifics. I do love using CommentLuv – if you’re considering adding a plugin for comments.
Thank you, Deb, for this wise and, for me, timely advice. I am once again spending time with my mother this week. She is much improved in her abilities to do many things, but the moment I stepped through the door, it was like she had forgotten everything and fell back to a state of dependence upon me. Yes, it frustrated me! But reading your post helped me to put it all in perspective. I’ll make sure I tell Mom today how much I love her.
Blessings!
What a beautiful post Deb! I love this: “Home is where you ‘let our hair down.’ Where you relax and reveal the real you.” The first thing I do when I get home is wash my face, change into something comfortable and laugh with my husband while we crack jokes before dinner. Home is a great place to be!
I think it is so important to maintain a good attitude… especially in the home :). It’s important that we model how to properly deal with emotions and frustrations to our kids. Thanks for the share
also – keeping the home clean helps!
I adore this! Especially, “say I love you often!”
Great post! We are board game people. Sunday evenings I try to have a simple supper over and done with early, and we play a board game. Though it’s not “at home,” we also build memories by going camping. I find we have to be very intentional about our schedule to keep family time a priority.
This blog post is full of great tips for creating happy memories at home! It’s so important to make time for family and show each other love and appreciation. I especially like the advice to leave bad moods at the door and be kind to one another.
One great way to create happy memories is by giving thoughtful gifts to your family. Whether it’s a small token of appreciation or a big surprise, gifts can show your loved ones how much you care. It’s also fun to play with toys and games together as a family. These activities can help create lasting memories and strengthen your bonds.
Creating happy memories at home is all about finding joy in the simple things and connecting with loved ones. Some of the best ways include family game nights, cooking meals together, movie marathons, celebrating small milestones, creating DIY crafts, building indoor forts, gardening, having themed dinners, sharing stories, and engaging in hobbies together. These activities not only strengthen bonds but also fill the home with warmth and lasting memories.
Thanks for adding these great ideas. I completely agree. Keep it simple and make it fun. That’s the best way to make lots of happy family memories. God bless you!