Have a Houseparty! (For the Socially Distanced)

This post is sponsored by Houseparty, however, these opinions are my own and genuine.

After weeks and weeks of working from home and utilizing the common “tools of the quarantine trade” considered acceptable by professional standards, you’d think that after-hours video calls via mobile app or web browser would be the last thing you’d want to do after the kids go to bed. 

You’d think.

Still feeling isolated from the people you care about most? Houseparty is a safe and trusted way to connect with the people you actually want to video chat with! Not only does Houseparty enable you to see the friendly faces of those you love, it actually gives you something to do while hanging out! There are four free games in the app: Trivia, Heads Up Houseparty, Chips and Guac, and Quick Draw. Quick Draw has been the most fun for our family – mostly because we’re all terrible artists and everything ends up looking like it was drawn using a hard-boiled egg as the stylus. One game of Quick Draw last week ended in ab-workout-inducing laughter when no one in our law enforcement household could draw anything even remotely resembling a police car. 

My favorite part of the app is that you don’t have to schedule time to talk – it lets you know when others are “in the house”. When you open the app, it lets others know that you’re there and ready to chat! If you see that someone’s in the house and you’re available, hop in for a chat! If not, just ignore it. It’s pretty easy! After six weeks of working from home, I appreciate not having to go through the “suggest a new meeting time” nonsense.

Being the extreme extrovert that I am – you can read about that here – I thrive on engaging human interaction. I don’t want to simply hop on one of the cellular video chat options and stare at each other, which is why Houseparty has proven to be a great fit for our family. Whether we are 1000 miles apart or sitting across the room from each other, there is something fun to do in this app. This is truly the most “human” way I’ve found to be together, when we can’t be together. It’s also a great way to host a happy hour with friends, a virtual birthday party or baby shower, or just reconnect with a friendly face you’ve been missing – for you OR your kiddo. 

If anything positive has come from these countless weeks of homebound working, parenting, and homeschooling, it’s that anything socially-stimulating that doesn’t require wearing real pants becomes priority numero uno on my to-do list. Give Houseparty a try, and come back and let me know what you think. It might just be one app that sticks around after this round of social distancing is over.

Houseparty app is available for iOS, Android, macOS, and Chrome. Get downloading

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Kelli Bruemmer
Kelli is a native Okie with a larger-than-life personality and an unhealthy dose of sarcasm. She married Bobby in 2011, and they welcomed daughter, Maevyn, in 2013. Maevyn is autistic, and every day is a new adventure in discovering how her unique mind works. Life on their NE Oklahoma City acreage is never dull, and they enjoy RV camping and Sooner football. Kelli is a former law enforcement officer who now works full-time facilitating programs that keep people safe on Oklahoma roadways. She also enjoys consulting for Beautycounter, advocating for tougher legislation in the US beauty industry, stifling inappropriate profanity, managing her RBF, sharing inappropriate memes, looking for the nearest restroom, hiding her love of Taylor Swift, and trying not to sing Disney songs out loud in public.

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