The first bout of seasonal sniffles has already struck our household this year. As I tried to entertain my feverish daughters – confined to home, missing school and classmates and definitely not ill enough to merit being at home (in their expert opinions) – I was struck by an acute case of nostalgia.

Growing up in the age before 24 hour TV, computers and game consoles meant we had to find ways to entertain ourselves. Over a number of Christmasses and birthdays we had collected a veritable stash of board and card games which would come out of storage whenever we were stuck indoors for any length of time. For a few brief moments, I was transported back to my parents’ living room with some board game or other laid out on the table as we merrily whiled away a rainy Sunday afternoon.

These days life is far more hectic; between work schedules and the children’s school and extra curricular activities we seem to live by the clock. Even when the entire family is at home there are a multitude of entertainment options clamouring for our attention and it is far too easy to find that, rather than spending time as a unit, family members are engrossed in doing their own thing.

The importance of spending time focused on the children cannot be overestimated. Focusing on a child’s education and supporting his or her hobbies are admirable but time spent simply chilling out together as a family is invaluable. Children who spend time enjoying their parents’ company benefit from an increased sense of self-worth and confidence as Mum or Dad is valuing that child simply for being there, rather than for achieving something.

A family fun night is simply what it says on the jar – time spent enjoying the company of your family members. A few steps will help everyone get on board with the idea:

• § Schedule a family meeting to plan your family night and agree when the first fun night should be held; decide food, game or activity for that evening and share out the tasks involved.
• § Be fair. Fun is subjective so if there are many suggestions flying around, have everyone write their idea on a piece of paper, place all suggestions in a container and draw lots. Keep all unused suggestions for use in future family nights.
• § On the night, turn all the TVs and computers off and switch all phones to answering machines. Suspend bedtime and healthy eating rules but be sure to wind the evening down before younger children become over tired.
• § Explain the rules before you start and you’re all set for an evening of fun (and possibly some tears if you have a sore loser in your family).

The choice of games depends entirely on family composition and preference but can be widely categorised as being traditional, concentration or electronic games.

If you wish to buy a quiz game try a version of Trivial Pursuit, Weakest Link or Catchphrase. Alternately you could design your own quiz with every family member researching their particular area of interest then writing the questions and answers for the quizmaster to use. The theme can be suited to your interests as a family, favourite sport teams, singers, future holiday destinations and so on. The only limiting factor is your imagination.

Other sedate games includes such favourites as Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo and Chequers or Chess. A junior version is available of each of the first three and you could run Chequers tournaments using more than one board to keep everyone playing.

Charades also requires some brain work and coupled with the miming skills needed often has hilarious results. The game is played in teams wth one member of each team taking turns to mimic the title of a song, book, play or movie. The team must guess the correct title before the allotted time runs out.

Other games that tend to become quite energetic are Twister and Hullabaloo. Twister is played on a coloured mat and players must follow instructions to place limbs on different coloured circles without falling down which automatically disqualifies you. Hullabaloo is suited to the more energetic players as participants attempt to follow instructions given by the battery powered speaker to move from one pad to another hoping to land on the ‘right’ pad at the end of the round.

The humble deck of cards can also provide hours of fun. A spirited game of snap, a memory game or ‘31’ are entertaining for old and young alike while rummy or cribbage and other such games will help teens and parents spend an enjoyable evening together.

Games consoles are sometimes depicted as being the root of all evil, leading children to spend hours isolated from the family as they sit engrossed in the latest interactive game. My husband and I have so far resisted purchasing any of these for our children so I asked Alan Camilleri, sales manager at Scan Computers, to enlighten me.

The initial expense for the basic games console ranges from around €225 for a Nintendo Wii to €420 for a Sony Playstation. Each console also has various add-on accessories intended to complement certain games, allow additional players and increase movement. These game consoles include a sensor that detects a player’s movements and replicates them on screen.

I roped the children into test-driving a Nintendo Wii loaned by Scan Computers one evening and was surprised to find that we all had a great time. The children derived a great deal of satisfaction from being much better at the game than Mummy would ever be and also got quite excited trying to paddle their canoes past the finish line quicker than their siblings. A word of advice: clear the room of any fragile options as proceedings became very animated.

Games are age-rated in a similar way to DVDs and films, making it easy to ensure your children are safeguarded from inappropriate material. In addition to the sports, dancing and video games there are also quizzes and brain games with new titles being issued reglularly.