5 Ways to Celebrate National Family Day

Calling all kids, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and pets! National Family Day, designated for the fourth Monday of September, may be a lesser-known holiday but it’s certainly one worth celebrating. No matter what a family looks like, we can all agree that it’s an important part of life. 

Quick history on the holiday — it was started by the National Center on Addiction, in response to their research that found teens who participated in regular family dinners were less likely to abuse substances. The holiday aims to encourage families to carve out time and share a meal and quality time.

So not surprisingly, first up on our list is to cook and eat a meal together. However, we also have some other ideas that can encourage quality time with the family. We hope this list sparks some ideas that lead to some sweet memories with your favorite people.

5 Ways to Make National Family Day Special With Your People 

1. Share your favorite meal

In keeping with the holiday’s original purpose, consider setting aside time with your family and center it around food. This doesn’t have to be a four-course meal with all the fixings, but think about the food that your family has bonded over in the past. Maybe it’s breaking out Grandma’s famous chocolate chip cookie recipe or making a trip to the restaurant across town with the mac and cheese that the family still dreams about. Whatever it is, as long as it includes the family gathered around a table with food on it, you can call it a success. 

If it’s not already a routine to share a meal on a regular basis, maybe take this time to talk about what that could look like for your family — even once a week can be a game-changer. This is a simple but special way to bond all throughout the year. 

2. Plan a fun activity

Outside of a family dinner, there are lots of ways to spend quality time together! This can look as unique as your family — could be a family game night, movie night, spending the day at a park, museum, or anywhere that has a special meaning to your family. Check out our blog post that has some creative ways to get the family excited about bonding out and about in the real world.

3. Reflect on what you love most about your family

A great way to celebrate your family is by sharing what you love most about each other. And this can be done anywhere, anytime — maybe while you’re munching on Grandma’s cookies or during the drive to the park. 

To help start these conversations, we’ve included some questions to help everyone reflect on their favorite things about the family. 

• “What’s your favorite memory of us together?”
• “What do you think is unique about our family?”
• “When do you remember laughing the hardest together?”
• “What’s your favorite family inside joke?”
• “What’s one thing you love about each family member?”
• “What’s one thing our family does that you think all families should do?”

4. Look through old photos together 

Nothing sparks appreciation and thankfulness like nostalgia. Consider breaking out your old photos and taking a trip down memory lane. Younger kids may not be able to appreciate old photos as much, but teens will definitely enjoy reminiscing on their early childhood. So whether it’s your stack of old scrapbooks or just a scroll through your old Facebook albums, you and the family can cuddle up on the couch and tell stories about the past. 

5. Have a family photo shoot 

If you are imagining a traditional family photo shoot where everyone is in collared shirts and uncomfortable shoes in a portrait studio at the mall, this probably doesn’t sound fun. But nowadays, photo shoots can take place right in your home and be a lot more creative! All you have to do is set up a timer on your smartphone and come up with some fun ideas. You could pick a theme and DIY some costumes or come up with some silly poses and locations around your home. The possibilities are endless and will make for some great memories to look back on for National Family Day next year. 

How Bark Helps Connect Families

We know that parenting in the digital age can be difficult. This is why Bark offers tools to help keep parents connected with their kids with each other, even in our tech-driven world. Bark offers content monitoring that will scan your child’s texts, emails, and 30+ social media apps, looking for harmful content. If anything is detected, you’ll be sent an alert right away. This helps ensure you’re there for your child when they need you most and enables parents to start important conversations with their kids. 

Bark also offers powerful parental controls such as screen time schedules, web filtering, location tracking, and more. You can use these through our app, the Bark Phone, or the coming-soon Bark Watch.