Playing board games gets everyone in the same room and helps family members across generations connect, compete, and have a great time together. Board games are easy, inexpensive, and have benefits well beyond the activity itself. Games are an entertaining and painless way to help kids build essential learning skills on the sly or by accidental learning, which means theres no anxiety or resistance.
The book Family Treasures: Creating Strong Families by John DeFrain covers six qualities that strong, successful families around the world exhibit: enjoyable time together; appreciation and affection for one another; positive communication; spiritual wellbeing (values, beliefs, life skills); successful management of stress and crisis; and commitment to each other.
If we dont carve out time as a family, none of those traits will be achieved. Board games foster that face-to-face interaction needed to connect deeply with each other and to develop the other traits of strong families.