The concept of a “family game night” is one that feels like it got left behind in a TV sitcom. Where a family picks a night of the week to break out all the board games, orders a pizza, and digs into some good old-fashioned family fun. “Old-fashioned” being, unfortunately, the operative word. Because what those sitcoms didn’t account for is screens.
They didn’t account for the days when kids are too busy checking their phones to checkmate. And no matter how many times and ways you try and get them to power down, it’s so hard to get them to ditch the screens. Actress Busy Philipps knows that to be true — but she also knows a simple little way to get some quality screen-free family time.
Be spontaneous. Even if it’s planned spontaneity.
“If you give too much advance notice,” she tells SheKnows exclusively, “They might find another thing that they’re going to have to be doing in that one moment.”
“So I do try to be like, ‘Hey, I have an idea,'” she tells us in her best “surprised mom” voice. The current game of choice? Babybel Goodness Land (Think: Candy Land by Hasbro but with Babybel cheese!).
“Even though I’ve had the idea all day, I’ll be like, ‘Omg [this game is] out, how did that happen? Let’s just play one round.'”
Lately, Philipps is playing one “out of the blue” round with just her daughter Cricket, 10. Her daughter Birdie would be involved, if not for the teeny tiny fact that she’s currently off at boarding school in Sweden. It was something the 14-year-old wanted to do and Philipps eventually came around to it.
“I am a firm believer in listening to your kids when they tell you a thing that they feel would be beneficial for them,” she says. “Birdie did the absolute most extreme version of the school in a different country, but that’s my child. Never does things halfway.”
The Freaks and Geeks star tells us that the “anticipatory grief” or “countdown” to Birdie leaving was so huge for the family that the physical drop-off was almost anticlimactic. They had already felt so many of those big feelings and now, thanks to those pesky screens that do come in handy from time to time, she hasn’t felt too separated from her oldest daughter. Well, except for in some of those little moments that sneak up on you.
“I had to pick out an outfit the other day and I actually was really bummed she wasn’t there to give advice,” Philipps says, bumming us out too.
Now the outfit-picking duties may fall on you, Cricket! Philipps tells us the change hasn’t been too hard for her youngest. In some ways, it might be really good. (Sorry, Birdie!)
“I’m kind of excited for Cricket because she’s really getting to experience having all of the attention,” Philipps says. “I’m a younger sibling, and by the time I was on my own in my house with my parents, I was in high school and was like, ‘I don’t need any alone time with these people.’ Cricket is 10 and I think it’s still exciting for her to get us all to herself. She will miss her sister. I know she’s missed her already, but she is also enjoying it a little bit.”
“…I think it’s important [to have one-on-one time with each kid] because then you really get to know who your kid is as an individual,” she says. “Really getting to know your kids is such an interesting part of parenting. Because they are so different, even though you think, well, ‘I did all the same things.'”
It’s such a relatable phenomenon, and now we’ll be doing the same thing as you: putting away the calendar and the takeout menu and “randomly” finding a board game on the table. (Psst! Now through Oct. 4, fans can enter to win one of their own.)
Love ‘The Queen’s Gambit?’ Check out these chess sets for kids.
Leave a Comment