99 Quick and Easy Ways To Be Playful in Your Relationship
You may be used to playing with your kids, but are you used to playing together with your husband? Laugh, be silly, and connect to each other with these quick and easy ways to integrate play into your relationship!
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Why play is so important in your marriage
Play is a vital ingredient that adds flavor to the relationship and strengthens the bond between partners.
Engaging in playful activities with your spouse not only brings joy and laughter into your lives, but also fosters a deeper connection.
When you are playful in your marriage, there is a sense of spontaneity and excitement in your daily routine, making the usual “everyday” more enjoyable for you both. Through play, you can relax, let go of stress, and rediscover the joy of being together, ultimately nurturing a happier and more fulfilling marriage. Who doesn’t want that?!
Fun and silly ways to be playful in your relationship
Looking for some inspiration on how you can bring more play into your marriage? Look no further than these silly suggestions.
Some of them are going to seem extremely corny or out of your comfort zone, but the point is to push yourself to find goofy ways to play in any scenario in your daily routine. These examples will help open your eyes to how any day can be a fun day to play with your partner!
Physical challenges and games
1- Yoga pose challenges – See who can hold a steady tree, chair, or airplane pose the longest.
2- Arm wrestle – Start with just one arm and if you absolutely can’t beat him, use two!
3- Three-legged race – Strap the right leg of one partner together with the left leg of the other partner and see if you can coordinate your steps to get around your house.
4- Stand up back to back – Sit on the floor with your backs to each other. Interlace your arms and see if you can stand up together without using your hands!
5- Try to moon walk – See who can master this Michael Jackson classic move.
6- Twerk – Or see if either of you can do a Miley-worthy twerk!
7- Dance the Macarena – A great one to do with the kids, do the Macarena dance together.
8- Partner exercises – Search on Instagram or TikTok for “partner workouts” and try one of the exercises together.
9- Charades – Use your bodies, not your words, to act out and guess the clues.
10- Dance to YMCA – Everyone loves this classic dance!
11- Wheelbarrows – Have Partner One hold the ankles of Partner Two while Partner Two walks around the room on their hands!
Mental and memory challenges
12- On your feet math facts – Quick! What’s 9 x 8? How about 27 / 9? Hit each other with fast math facts to keep your brains active.
13- Memory game – Take a few cards from your child’s memory game and see who can find the matches the fastest.
14- Photo recall – Look at a photo for 1 minute then flip the photo over. Ask each other questions about the details in the photo and see who can remember the most.
15- Story recall – Find a page from a book and read it out loud to your partner. Then ask him questions about the details from the page to see if he can remember them after hearing the story!
16- Limerick contest – A limerick is a poem with 5 lines where lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme with one word, and lines 3 and 4 rhyme with another word (rhyming scheme AABBA). See who can come up with the most clever limerick on the spot.
17- Name the actor in the movie – Shout out a character from a movie and see how quickly your partner can tell you the name of the actor or actress who played that character.
18- Solve rebus puzzles – Similarly, search for “rebus puzzles” on Google, go to Images, and try to solve as many as you can.
19- Word scramble – Pick 7 random letters including 2 vowels and see how many words you can come up with together using those letters.
20- Trivia crack – Download the Trivia Crack app (yes, it’s still around!) and play against each other in a trivia duel.
21- Name the most . . . – Dog breeds. Fast food chains. Makes of cars. Start a list category and take turns going back and forth to see how many things you can add to the list together without repeating.
22- Words that rhyme with . . . – Or state a word and see how many more words you can come up with that rhyme with your first word. Dog! Mom! Cat!
23- Meditation – Turning your brains off for a few minutes and following a guided meditation together can be a great way to play, just in a more zen way.
24- Tongue twisters – Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers! See who can spout out some classic tongue twisters the fastest without fudging up the words.
25- Solve a riddle – Search for riddles online and see if you can solve them together!
26- Spelling bee – Give each other challenging words to spell out loud, spelling bee style.
Couple’s connection
27- The poking game – Play this trust game together for tons of fun and flinching! Blindfold one partner for one minute while the other partner has the opportunity to (gently) poke them wherever they want – or not. If the suspense doesn’t kill you, the tickling pokes will! Switch partners and repeat.
28- Thumb war – Use your thumb strength and strategy in this classic battle.
29- Spin 15 times and kiss – With your eyes open, each of you should spin around 15 times, then try to kiss each other and see what happens!
30- Say affirmations – Write a silly affirmation or pump up phrase for your partner to repeat out loud 3 times. Make it relevant to them, or something completely random. Example: “I am a lion – hear me roar!”
31- Trust falls – Do you trust your partner? Stand in front of them and fall backwards to see if they catch you or let you fall on your butt.
32- Give a massage – Give each other hand, foot, or scalp massages for just a few minutes each. Make it more fun by writing letters or drawing pictures with your fingers and seeing if your partner can guess what you’ve drawn.
33- Take a selfie together – Channel your inner teenagers and break out those duck faces! Take a selfie with some super silly expressions.
34- Read about a pet on a shelter site – Find the website for your local animal shelter and read the profiles of the pets together.
35- The perfect high five – This one might be slightly painful, but try nailing the perfectly smacked, on-target high five.
36- Butterfly kisses – Give each other butterfly kisses using your eyelashes to tickle your partner’s face (or other places).
37- Share some gratitude – Think of the strangest things (big or small) that you are grateful for to have in your lives. Then share them with each other.
38- Send a GIF – Find a funny GIF that reminds you of your partner and send it to them. Keep the conversation going all day if you want!
39- Send an old photo – Find old of photos of the two of you together and send them to each other.
40- Long kiss – Have an obnoxiously long kiss – not a make out session, just 1 long kiss. See if you can do it for more than 10 seconds without laughing!
41- Deep breathing – A relaxing way to play, try doing a guided deep breathing exercise together.
42- Squish – Lay on top of your partner! If he’s laying on the bed looking at his phone, squish him. It’s a surprisingly effective way to connect.
43- Staring contest – Stare longingly into each other’s eyes – without laughing or blinking first.
44- Eskimo kiss – Give each other a cute nose-to-nose bump every now and again.
45- Washing dishes behind you – Have your partner stand at the sink while you stand behind him. Thread your arms under his and try to wash the dishes without being able to see while he gives you instructions!
46- Strip your partner’s clothes – Who said playful couldn’t be a little sexy, too?
47- Bear hug – Give each other a long, super tight squeeze.
48- Feed each other popsicles – This one can get silly and maybe even slightly sexual really quick. . .
49- Brush your partner’s teeth – Try brushing each other’s teeth at the same time.
50- Butt bongos – If you catch your partner laying on his stomach, use his butt as a bongo drum!
Musical games and challenges
51- Sing it – Turn on your favorite tunes and belt out with your best singing voices!
52- Humming challenge – Try humming songs for each other and guessing which song your partner is trying to hum.
53- Shred air guitar – Crank up some classic rock jams and go to town on your epic air guitars.
54- Guess that song – Take turns playing the first 3 seconds of songs for each other and guessing which song your partner is playing from just the first few notes.
55- Name that band – Take turns playing songs for each other and naming which band/artist plays or sings that song.
56- Whistle while you work – Start whistling a song and see if your partner can guess which one you’re whistling. Once he catches on, have him whistle along to.
57- DJ – Pick a category of music – 80’s rock ballads, early 2000’s boy bands, show tunes, etc. – and take turns playing songs from the category you picked.
Silly fun
58- Noodle pick up game – Pour some penne or other round hollow pasta on the counter. Use a chopstick or skewer (carefully) in your mouth to pick up the noodles and put them in a bowl. The partner who collects the most noodles in 1 minute wins!
59- Write a note in your opposite hand – Write each other a love note using only your “bad” hand.
60- Don’t say yes/no – Set a rule that you can’t say yes/no/any word you choose for an hour. If you catch your partner saying the forbidden word, you get to tickle them or find some other prize!
61- Make a drink – Raid your refrigerator or liquor cabinet and mix up a yummy cocktail for you both to enjoy.
62- Pig Latin conversation – Talk in Pig Latin and watch your kids’ expressions. It’s quite unny-fay and makes you really use your rain-bay.
63- Throw food to each other – Grab some popcorn or other light snacks and sit across from each other. Take turns throwing pieces and trying to catch it in your mouths.
64- The best dad joke – Have a contest to see who can have the best worst dad joke – AKA a joke that your dad would break out at an inappropriate time and embarrass you by thinking he was hilarious.
65- Animal impressions – Can you do an elephant noise? Or a dolphin? How about a screaming goat?
66- Best accents – See who can say the silliest things in a British, Jamaican, Irish, or Southern accent!
67- Sock matching race – Folding laundry is usually a boring task, but if you make it a race to see who can match the most socks the fastest, it becomes a fun way to play.
68- Chugging contest – Who can down their drink the fastest at the dinner table? Don’t let the kids see your shenanigans.
69- Stack pennies – Grab a bunch of loose pennies, set a timer for 1 minute, and see who can build the biggest tower before the timer goes off.
70- Place your bets – Watch a sporting event, award show, or even reality TV and place bets on the outcomes. Your bets could be for a prize for yourself, like getting a massage, or a punishment for your partner, like having to put the laundry away.
71- Tease your kids – As evil as it sounds, playing dodgeball and throwing things (preferably soft objects) at your children playfully or otherwise teasing them can be a fun way to play for parent couples.
72- Spit fountain in the shower – Take a shower together and see who can make the tallest fountain by spitting water through their teeth.
73- Blind taste test – Blindfold Partner One while Partner Two feeds random things to Partner One. Partner one should guess what they’ve eaten. Switch!
74- Blind smell test – Blindfold Partner One while Partner Two puts random smelly things (good or bad) under Partner One’s nose. Guess what you’re smelling! And be nice, it’s time to switch after.
75- Flip the bottle game – Get a bottle of water and pour half of the water out. Flip the bottle and try to land it right side up. First person to do it wins!
76- Oven mitt unwrap – Put oven mitts on your hands and race to see who can unwrap a piece of candy first.
77- Indoor basketball – Set up a laundry hamper or bucket that you can use as a basket and take turns shooting rolled up socks or stuffed animals into it.
78- Make a TikTok video – Find a TikTok challenge or trend and make your own video to post.
79- Play rock, paper, scissors – Simply a classic.
Play like a kid again!
80- Stuffed animal dodgeball – Used your kids’ stuffed animals to play dodgeball in the house (you don’t need your mom’s approval to throw things in the house anymore!).
81- Juggle – Take some toy balls, oranges, or stuffed animals and learn how to juggle.
82- Cards – Play a quick hand of poker or your other favorite card game.
83- Cup stacking – Who can make and take down a pyramid of 10 plastic cups the quickest?
84- Pictionary – Take turns drawing something random and see if your partner can guess what you’ve drawn.
85- Catchphrase – The Catchphrase party game is great for having around for a quick play. Play with each other instead of against each other and see how many clues you can through on one turn.
86- Headbands – Write the name of a person or a type of animal on a post-it note without your partner seeing it. Stick your notes on each other’s foreheads and then try to guess what name/animal is on your head by asking your partner only yes or no questions.
87- Taboo – Taboo is another great party game to have on hand, play through one round every now and again explaining the word on your card without using any of the forbidden words. Normally you would have someone buzzing you if you use one of the forbidden words, but when you are playing together for fun, take each other’s word for it that no one is cheating!
88- Scategories – Yet another great word game you can play quickly in a modified version. Write down 5 categories – for example school supplies, NFL teams, or countries of the world – and then use ChatGPT to pick a random letter for you. Then set a timer for one minute and come up with the best words you can think of that fit in each category and start with the chosen letters. If you both pick the same word, they cancel each other out. The partner who has the most original answers wins!
89- Dice games – You can play with dice 100 ways! Take 5 dice each and see who can roll 5 of a kind first, or get a straight from 1 to 5, or stack the dice on top of each other.
90- Build with Legos – Use your kid’s Lego blocks to make something really cool.
91- NERF gun target practice – Use a toy foam dart gun to shoot random things around your house or each other!
92- Yoyo tricks – Learn some super cool yo-yo tricks you can show off to your kids.
93- Make fart noises – Use your armpits or just your mouths to make some epic fart noises. You can use them to mess with your children now and then when they don’t expect it!
94- Build a blanket tent – If you’re going to spend an evening watching a movie together, do it in the comfy confines of your very own blanket fort.
95- Jump in the bed – A few good hops won’t ruin the mattress.
96- T-rex arms – Put your arms down in your shirt so only your hands stick out like a little T-rex. Try eating dinner or cleaning up after like this and see who can master being a T-rex.
97- Play handclap games – This pastime of 8 year-old girls can also be fun for couples to do. Pick your favorite handclap game song (like Miss Mary Mack or A Sailor Went to Sea) and go faster and faster until one of you messes up the rhythm.
98- Play paper football – Make a triangle “football” out of paper and sit on opposite ends of a table. Push your football across the table – if the tip goes off the edge, you score and get a chance to “kick a field goal” by flicking the “ball” with your fingers through your partner’s finger “goalposts.”
99- Make paper airplanes – Make paper airplanes and see whose fly the furthest or hit a target when thrown.
Time to play!
Are you ready, mama?
Don’t spend another day waiting for your marriage to magically get better as your kids grow older and you and your husband grow further apart. Take charge of your life and get the marriage you want and deserve.
Bring a little play into your day today!
This article is part of the series How to Revive Your Marriage After Kids Fundamental 2: Have More Fun.
About me
Hi, I’m Bailee! I am a mom just like you who, after having my second baby, was struggling BIG TIME to cope with motherhood and marriage. Divorce seemed like the inevitable option until I decided to fight for the family life that I truly wanted.
I challenged my husband to give our marriage one more go and was able to pull us out of the abyss. With a change in my mindset and some other handy tools and tricks along the way, I brought us back into the light of a happy marriage with kids.
Now I am here now to help you do the same! Are you ready, mama? Learn more.
