CUSTOM COFFEE MUGS- BRINGING THE FAMILY TOGETHER

Do you feel like your family is drifting apart? You can't think of things to do that everyone will like? You need an excuse to bring the family back together. The best place to start, is with little things. Your teens, they're still your children and they still want to be known and liked. Their cry of, "You just don't understand," its just a cry out to you to try to get you to understand. They have forgotten that you know all the little things about them. You changed their diapers, and raised them through the terrible toddler stages. You dressed them and sent them off for the first day at school, you are their parent. And you are trying to connect. 

Here's a great place to start. You are still the parent after all, find ways to make your kids share memories about eachother. Find ways to get them to open up about the little secrets that they know, like Geoff may be sixteen, but his favorite cartoon is still Scooby-Doo. And Sarah, she actually still loves barbies. You can do this at the dinner table, it doesn't take much. Encourage a bit of conversation, then when you've started them thinking tell them that you are going to give them a mission, that mission is to... and whatever you can think of. It needs to be something that will make them work for each other, think of one another. Need an idea, okay here's one.  

My family owned coffee mugs. We each had one and we had to drink out of that mug. This started as a way for my mother to cut down on dishes. But as I got older my friends loved to buy me mugs, or bring them back to me from vacations they took. Mugs have begun to be a trademark of mine. My brothers too. With your family it could be a wonderful activity. Tell the kids that they have to get a mug for each of their siblings. Say you have two boys and a girl. Then the boys must get your daughter a mug, one that they think would suit her, one that reminds them of perhaps a past joke you all had, or a nickname, or maybe it has her favorite movie star on it. You daughter must collaborate with the boys on mugs for both of them. 

See the great thing about using coffee mugs, when the reveal takes place, and your children exchange mugs they'll have to tell each other about why they chose what they did. And what they think about it. And then, whenever the kids have to get a drink they have to drink out of the mug they got for each other. Mugs last forever too, so the gift will be around for years to come. Another thing you could do, would be to get the mugs custom designed. Custom coffee mugs are available everywhere. Getting photos silk-screened onto mugs is a pretty cheap service offered now, and personalizing the mugs with pictures of the family, favorite vacations, or even their own faces could be a lot of fun. 

The point is not the mugs. The point is, bringing the family back together will start with little things. The best thing  you can do is gather your family around you and spend time together. Have your children serve each other. Giving them missions to accomplish could be a great experience.