Family Night Fun: Backwards

 

This family night idea was born out of pure desperation.  And hunger.  Definitely hunger.

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one option for a hungry mother when dinner is taking waaaay longer than it should to finish and a special dessert is just begging to be eaten.

Declare a “Backwards Night”!

And that’s just what we did last week.  This fun family night wasn’t planned.  It was spontaneous and a surprise to everyone, which just added to the fun of it all.  None of us knew what was going to happen next!

I had everyone turn their clothes backwards.  (I gave myself an exemption due to the growing baby bump and doubts that I could find clothes that would fit over it.)  I almost put my daughter’s hair in a ponytail at the front of her head, but decided to just wait until next time.  There was dessert waiting to be eaten after all.

Within minutes of declaring the backwards theme, there were many attempts at talking backwards and loads of walking backwards around the house.  It was pretty comical.

When we do this again we’ll call everyone by their names spelled backwards for the night.  I know the kids would get a big kick out of that.  I will probably have to write them down just to remember what to call them!

As you can see in the pictures, the kids were clearly devastated about eating dessert first.

We began our mealtime prayer with a hearty “Amen”.  (You wanna mess with your religion, try that some time.)  Our meal was gluten free pear crisp with vanilla ice cream.  For dessert we had pot roast with veggies.  You could choose to eat under your table for backwards night, but there’s no way our family could fit under ours.

As a side note, we do not typically allow our children to wear hats at the table, but made an exception in the spirit of backwards night fun.  (Careful, this can mess with your religion too.)

Outside of wearing clothes backwards- or even inside out- and having dessert first, there are lots of other options for adding fun memories to your backwards family night.  Here are just a few ideas:

• Play your favorite board games from finish to start.
• Create an obstacle course where all the challenges have to be done backwards.
• Play “Simon Says” or “Red Light, Green Light” in opposite form.
• Read a favorite book backwards.
• Race to see who can count or say the alphabet backwards first.
• Turn a few things backwards in your house and see who notices first.
• Set a time period for the children to act like the parents and the parents to be the children.

Here are some fun book ideas for a night when everything is backwards:

You could also read Shel Silverstein’s poem Backwards Bill (found in A Light in the Attic).

Whatever you choose to do, just remember to say, “Good morning”, as you tuck your kiddos in bed for one last smile!  My husband actually suggested that we do a whole backwards day in the future, but I’m not sure I’m quite ready for that. 🙂

You can find more ideas for family night fun here.  You can also sign up for free email updates so you don’t miss any future posts.