If you are a parent and you want to be as close to your kids as possible, there are a lot of different ways you can hope to achieve this. The truth is that it’s always possible to spend some more quality time with your children, and doing so is going to be one of the best ways to improve your relationship with them. But it can often be hard to find the time and energy to make this a reality, which is why it might require a concerted effort on your part.
With that in mind, let’s look now at some of the things you can do to ensure that you are spending some real quality time with your kids. As long as you are thinking about the following, you should find that you are going to be having a lot more fun with them and that you will get closer and closer over time.
Get Motivated
You will find that all of this is a lot easier and simpler if you can first get motivated to do it. So, you should think about some of the ways in which you can benefit from spending more quality time with your kids, and once you have done that you are going to find that it really makes a world of difference to how likely you are to pursue these things. So what are some of those motivations that you may want to be aware of?
First of all, as we have already seen, you are probably going to feel a lot closer to your children as a result of this. That may be motivation enough as it is. You’ll also probably have a lot of fun with them, and that can be something that you really do enjoy. You’re also going to find that the more motivated you are to spend time with them, the more motivated they are, so that can be a nice position to be in.
Once you are more firmly motivated, you’re going to find that spending quality time with your kids is so much easier to do – because it will be so much more important for you to do.
Finding The Time
In order to do it, however, you’ll need to find the time, and for many parents this is the trickiest part of all. You probably already know just how difficult it is to get time to do anything when you are a parent, but because we are talking here about time with your kids, it should be a little easier and simpler. In any case, you’ll have to think about some of the ways in which you can effectively carve out some time to spend with your children, and this is something that might be a lot harder than you think.
First of all, look at your schedule and see where there might be some time spare. You might even be surprised at just how much there is once you start looking. From there, it’s then a case of scheduling in the time you are going to spend with your kids – perhaps involving them in this process too if they are of a certain age already.
The point here is that once you start to find the time, you’ll find that it gets easier and easier to do so, and you are more likely to do it again in future. So that is something that you should definitely make sure you are thinking about if you want to have truly quality time with your kids. Finding the time is tough, but necessary for this.
Seeking Mutual Enjoyment
The whole point to this, of course, is that you are doing something that both of you enjoy. As long as you are doing that, it’s going to mean that your time spent with your children is so much more worth it and that you can truly think of it as quality time. So make a point of seeking out mutual enjoyment with your children, and you should find that this has a significant effect on the way in which you are going to approach all this.
It might be that there is some compromise to be made – your child might enjoy something that you are not personally enamored with, and you’ll find that you might have to suspend your feelings a little in order to engage in it with them. However, this is part of the process, and something that you can actually learn to enjoy with time too. The point is to do all you can to ensure you are seeking mutual enjoyment together as best as you can. If you are doing that, it’s going to make a world of difference.
Check In Daily
You might want to consider having a daily check in with your kids. This is one really powerful way to ensure you are feeling aligned with them, and it’s quite amazing what it can do for you and for your relationship with them too. When you are doing this, you’ll find that you are very quickly going to feel a lot closer to your children, and they will probably feel closer to you as well. So this is something that you are certainly going to want to bear in mind.
A daily check in can be a very short and simple thing, but it’s the kind of thing that is often going to make a world of difference. If you are not already doing this, try it today. At first your kids might be resistant, but over time they are going to get used to it and even start to enjoy it and look forward to it – that’s when you know you are really getting somewhere. All in all, it’s something that you should certainly make sure you are finding time for. Once you have your daily check in, you can look at other ways to spend some great quality time with each of your kids.
Make Use of Rituals
There is something amazing about having some rituals in place, and this is the kind of thing that you can use to really cement the quality time you are seeking to have with your children. When you make use of rituals in this way, it’s going to mean that you have a great series of opportunities to get closer to your children. And it can be a really useful way to start spending great time together.
Once you look for opportunities for rituals throughout the day, you will start to see them everywhere. It might be bath time, bedtime, brushing your teeth together – whatever it is, there is something about the routine and rhythm of it that means you are going to start feeling automatically a lot closer to one another. So this is the kind of thing that you should certainly make use of.
With some of those rituals in place, you are going to feel a lot closer to your kids in no time.
Relax Together
One of the most important things you can do for quality time is to use that time to relax together. If you are able to truly and genuinely relax, it means that you and your children will be a lot more likely to enjoy one another’s company, and of course you’ll get all the benefits of the relaxation itself too.
The good news is that there are so many ways to do this, and it can look like a lot of different activities. You might play solitaire together, relax in the garden, or whatever else you want to do. The important thing is that you are genuinely relaxing, and that you do it together. If you do that, you’ll find it has huge benefits for you and for the relationship between you two.
Let Them Choose
From time to time, you might want to let your kids choose what you are going to do for quality time. Giving them the choice in this way is a great way to ensure that you are going to have a much better time together, and most importantly that they are specifically going to have fun with it as well. So that is something that you should certainly think about if you want to make sure that you are going to have a much better time with them and that they are enjoying it.
Of course, you might not want to do this every time. But it’s certainly something to think about if you are keen on trying to improve your relationship with your kids. You will find that they do tend to appreciate this quite a lot. That in itself can be a really useful and powerful part of all of this.
Those are some of the main things to think about when it comes to spending quality time with your kids. As long as you have done and thought about those, you’ll find that it makes a huge difference.