Tips for Quality Time With Your Children

A hectic lifestyle, multiple occupations, long working hours, little free time, and few spaces to share with the family, is the panorama of many current parents; Then the million-dollar question arises: How to give children quality time? Here we propose the following ideas.

The importance of time with children

The accompaniment of parents in the development process of their children – from infancy to youth – is decisive for forming healthy human beings emotionally and physically.

Even research shows that children to whom their parents do not pay enough attention are more likely to suffer from aggression, boredom, feelings of loneliness, low self-esteem, insecurity, lack of affection, poor school performance, difficulty giving or receiving affection.

On the other hand, several experts coincide in stating that when children grow up in a home where parents dedicate time to them. They enjoy many benefits such as a higher degree of confidence, a good level of self-esteem and security, better capacities for social interaction, strengthening of bonds effective, assimilation of norms, values, and principles for life.

It is also noted that these children tend to repeat their parenting model, that is, to form stable and harmonious families. It is key then, to let the children know that they are loved and demonstrate it with facts, the following recommendations will make the time you spend with your children really quality:

• Log out to log in

Children need the presence of their parents, but their body is not enough. They also need their soul, their willingness to listen to them, love them, and enjoy them. Therefore, turn off your mobile phone and put the tablet aside. This space is exclusive for your child; do not let other things occupy it. There is little time available and it must be used in the best way.

• Organize time

The accompaniment of the children does not have to abolish the personal and professional projects of the parents. It is a matter of properly managing time and achieving a balance between the different spaces. Although it should not be forgotten that the family should occupy the first place on the list of priorities; family time should be non-negotiable.

• Enjoy the moment

Children need calm, patient parents, willing to have a fun time, to share with the family, to make living together a loving and pleasant experience.

It is therefore essential to provide spaces to build a close and loving relationship with children, for example with the little ones. It is very important to share a time of play together, as it benefits their cognitive and affective development; while with adolescents and young people, you can share other activities according to your tastes.

• Time for each child

When there is more than one child, a unique moment should be established for each one. Since they have different needs and require an individual educational process.

• Use natural consequences.

Ask yourself what would have happened if you had not intervened. When we inadvertently get involved in something. We deprive children of the chance to learn from the consequences of their actions. When we allow the consequences of their actions to happen naturally, our relationship with our child will not be ruined by grumbling and blaming. We must let the children find their own solutions to their problems.

• permission to express his/her concerns

About the start of the school year and the reopening of schools allow your child to express his or her concerns. New teacher expectations, new rules, or school may make the child anxious. When he tells you his worries, you can work with him to find a solution and take specific steps to reduce the child’s stress. In this way, the difficulty of the first days of school becomes less.

• Get out of the family routine

Sometimes it is convenient to get out of a bit of the routine to give a breath of fresh air to the family, an activity different from the usual ones. These times are so pleasant for both children and parents.

Final words

Whatever you do, give quality or quantity time, it is a trap for parents, always with the feeling that they do not arrive. But children pay it above all, not only when they are children, but also as teenagers. Because they need time to dry. Attention, but also presence, someone who listens to them, but also a figure who is there for them when they need it.

Let’s end quality time and fight for time, without qualifications.