5 Oxytocin Activities for Families and Quick Tips in Friday’s Fast Five 34th Edition

Building a stronger, happier family is at the top of most parents’ list. However, we are busy! These weekly Fast Five ideas and tips are a quick way to brainstorm, check-in, and create the family relationships you really want. This week’s Fast Five include 5 oxytocin activities for families (and a brief introduction to why they’re important), a safety lesson, a decorating tip, and more. These tips all come from some of our expert speakers at the Raising a Healthy, Happy Child in the Early Years Virtual Summit 2021.

* These ideas are NOT meant to be a checklist or guilt trip of things we “should do.” Rather, they are intended to inspire you to find what works for YOUR family to learn, laugh, and love together. Remember to stick to the Simple Side of Parenting.

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What is Friday’s Fast Five?

Each Friday, we share five quick and simple ideas for families under the following categories:

• Something fun
• A Little Lesson
• A Service Idea
• Something Random
• A Quick Tip

As I try to simplify my own parenting journey and help others do the same, these help us think about what I feel is a simple version of good parenting…learn, laugh, love.

Subscribers also receive exclusive tips and downloads to simplify parenting life.

With that, here is the thirty-fourth edition of Friday’s Fast Five. (You can find other editions HERE.)

1. Something Fun: Affordable Parties

A birthday party is a fun way to help our child feel special. Parties also don’t have to break the bank. Katrina Rauch, the FAB Party Planning Mom, shared five secrets to throwing an affordable party your child will loved.

For example, choose a generic theme instead of a branded one, like a car party instead of a Hot Wheels one. This will cut down on the cost of all the supplies and open up possibilities, while still catering to what your child loves.

You can get Katrina’s secrets for fun, affordable parties and learn more from her HERE.

2. A Little Lesson: Personal Safety

Have a conversation with your family about what kinds of behavior to be aware of in others says family safety expert Jason Brick. For younger kids this could include the idea that adults shouldn’t ask kids for help and that surprises are fun in our family, but not secrets. For older kids, have a conversation about appropriate behavior online, including how much and what kinds of information you’re all comfortable sharing.

3. A Service Idea: Support Another Family

Throughout the week of our summit, I had the opportunity to connect with so many who are in an overwhelming season of parenting. If you’re in that kind of season, know that you’re not alone! Our service idea this week is to reach out to another family and offer support. As a family you could babysit or child swap, help with running a carpool, or even just take time to listen and offer emotional support to someone else.

4. Something Random: A Decorating Tip

When you choose a new piece of furniture, consider how beautiful it is, how it will function for your family, what kind of meaning it has, and how it will help you connect with others. In this way, Carly Thornock of Intentional House challenged us to use home design to help us become the kind of parent and person we want to be.

Carly reminded us that our homes are here to serve our relationships. She taught us a practical and intentional way to handle messes! Many parents said after seeing her presentation, they won’t look at messes the same way again.

5. A Quick Tip: Oxytocin Activities for Families

“Of all the things that we hear about that we should be doing or not, like exercising or eating healthier or playing with our kids more or the millions of other things we read every day, what’s the number one thing I should work on?”

This is the question Matt Larson and his friend were discussing when they realized they weren’t really sure. So Matt dove into finding the answer, and what they discovered surprised him.

Through in depth brain, mental health, and wellness research, they discovered that there were really only two things that have the greatest impact on long-term well-being. One is that we decrease cortisol release inside relationships, and the second is that we increase oxytocin release inside safe relationships. So here’s this week’s quick tip…

What does oxytocin activities mean?

Oxytocin is often called the love hormone. It plays many roles in the body, including during childbirth and breastfeeding for women. In many ways, it’s the chemical that helps form deep bonds. When we participate in activities that foster deep connection and strong relationships, we increase the oxytocin. These deep bonds and high oxytocin within strong relationships are associated with long-term well-being.

On the other hand, dopamine is another body chemical associated with feelings of well-being. We get a dopamine hit when we eat a food that tastes good, watch an entertaining show, or buy something new. However, the emotional high we get from dopamine does not last long comparatively.

So when we’re deciding how to spend our time as a family and individually, we’d be wise to choose oxytocin activities, or activities that increase oxytocin and deepen our bonds.

5 Oxytocin Activities for Families

Here are five examples of activites that can help strengthen bonds and increase oxytocin for us and our children.

1. Hug

Sometimes we stop giving hugs when our kids get older, but hugs are good for all of us at any age. Try giving an 8-second hug and see how you both feel.

2. Any Positive Physical Touch

Hold hands or link elbows while you walk. Sit close to each other while you watch a show or read so your arms or legs are touching. Give a back rub or a gentle hand on the shoulder while you chat.

3. Respond When a Child Enters the Room or is Upset

Part of having a deep bond is knowing that we and our feelings matter to the other person. One simple way to show this to our family members is to notice when they enter the room. Look up and into their eyes. Smile, and show you’re happy to see them. Particularly notice when they’re upset, and be there for them.

4. Respond Empathetically in Emotional Moments

Anyone can love us when we’re happy and doing well. But who will be there when we’re sad or hard to be around? Research shows that these times of upset are one of the strongest builders of relationship.

Show your child or other loved ones that you’re there for them in their hard moments. You don’t need to fix their problem (in fact, you probably shouldn’t try when they’re upset). Just show you care, you’re there to listen, and try to understand what they’re feeling. Show empathy.

5. Help Name and Process Emotions

One of the best ways to overcome emotional distress is to name and process our emotions. We bond deeply with the people who help us do that. They help us feel better, so we know we can turn to them. We also feel good about relationships when we’re able to help others in this way.

If you want to learn more about oxytocin activities for families, how to really build deep bonds, what communication mistakes to avoid, and more about long-term well-being, I highly recommend downloading The Happy Child App. This is the free app that Matt and his team developed with the Human Improvement Project.

And that is Friday’s Fast Five!

These tips all came from the experts at our Raising a Healthy, Happy, Child in the Early Years Virtual Summit. But of course, a short post can’t do justice to the depth of knowledge and support in the full summit. You can learn more about our parenting summits and access the replay HERE.

Which of these Fast Five tips were helpful for you today? Why? What kinds of oxytocin activities does your family enjoy? Share in the comments!

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