Boring nights at home with your family are going to be some of the things you miss most later.

The evenings that feel like nothing are most of what a childhood is actually made of, and they are hard to value while they are plentiful. Nobody misses the big occasions as sharply as the ordinary kitchen, the same show, somebody half-listening in the next room. They end without ever announcing it.

You do not have to turn them into something. Just stay in the room a little longer than you planned once this week, with your phone somewhere else. Ask one question you have never asked, about a job they had or a friend they lost track of, and let the night stay ordinary.