Any relationship strengthens as you go on spending more and more time together by listening and understanding each other and by sharing your thoughts. The bond between parent and child is no exception to it. As you go on spending more time with your kid by giving him dedicated and focused attention, your bond with child goes on strengthening.

 

 Research has shown that both the quality and quantity of time parents spend with their children are important. But more than quantity, quality matters. Even working parents can share more quality time with kids as compared to parents staying at home. The obvious reason is that, parents staying at home think that they are compensating for quality by quantity. Being at home while you are doing household work and the child is playing or watching TV then you are not giving dedicated attention to your kid. Quality time is when you actually start talking to your kid, you come to know about his heart felt emotions, his excitements, his sorrows, etc. and it can be pleasant for both of you.

 

 So in a broader aspect, if you think about both working and stay-home parents, all of them face the same problem in spending dedicated time with their kids. To avoid this, both working and stay-home parents need to give some thought for planning out this time. If you really want to share the quality time and a careful planning is done for the activities with kids then this purpose can surely be served.  Your love for your child along with some creative imagination can help you achieve this goal. By spending a good time with your child will definitely teach your child the fundamental lesson of being able to create happiness in any situation and this lesson will surely help him enjoy every moment throughout his life.

  

“The work will wait while you show your child the rainbow, but the rainbow won’t wait while you do the work.” -Patricia Clafford

 

I remember a day when I was returning home from work, it was raining. I saw a beautiful shining rainbow between the hills and over the clouds. It was mesmerizing.  I just wanted my son to see the rainbow. After reaching home, immediately I called him. I closed his eyes with my hands and took him outside. We stood facing the rainbow and slowly I took my hands off. He was very astonished. I still remember the look on his face, it was beautiful. Such a nice experience to see a smile on kid’s face!

 

 Now let me tell you the activities that can really turn the scattered moments you spend with your child to the sparkling crackers in the dark sky of your busy day. Here we go….

 

After bedtime: In morning or after a nap, when kids come out of bed, they are in different state of mind. Every time the state may differ. Sometimes they might be happy, sometimes sad, sometimes frightened. But the part that is common is they need your attention at that time. Just a hug for some time or a loving touch can turn them ON. Mornings can be the toughest time for working parents, but just take out 5 minutes and share some moments with your kid. It will really count!

 

Driving to daycare/school: This is the best opportunity to make a bond with your kid. You are through with the tough time in the morning to get ready and help your child getting ready. Now while you drive your kid to school or day care, there are few things, which can help you to have really good time together.  There are so many things around – at the roadside, in the sky, on the trees. Just make a game out of it. I just mark few landmarks with my child and everyday we talk about the changes or similarity in situation at that place. For example, we always see same kind of birds at the similar places. Everyday we just go on counting the birds as I drive for my kid to school.

 

After coming back from work: Take out some initial time for your child after coming home from work. Dedicate at least 5 minutes to your kid immediately after you reach home. It is really be difficult to be with your child immediately after you are back. But just a hug or a loving touch conveys a lot of things than words.

 

While preparing meals: Take help from kids while you prepare meal. Let the kids help you out in getting things out from fridge, getting necessary utensils for you and whatever things you can ask for them to do. As long as you make them feel important or even helpful, you are giving your child quality time.

For toddlers you can give some utensils with water and soap solution. This was the usual tactics I used to use when my son was a toddler. He used to try to imitate me the way I cook.

 

Let household work be a happy time: You can also take help from children when you do cleaning, gardening or any other household work. Let them feel being helpful and also take suggestions from them wherever possible. This exercise might just take some extra time to complete the task, but it is worth to share happy moments with your kid.

 

Before Bedtime: Give some time to listen to your kid. This is the time when your bond with your child can strengthen. During this time, let your kid explain about his day. Let him narrate it at his own pace. Having an interactive audience is such an encouraging moment for the child! Don’t laugh or put down the child for doing anything stupid. Encourage him for good things he did and help him come to a point to decide how he could have handled difficult situations in better manner. Have patience doing this.

 

Make Grocery shopping a cheerful task: Going for grocery shopping with children is always a difficult task altogether. But if you can give a little more time to it, you can make this work a cheerful one. Just ask your kid to help you out choosing appropriate things you need. When your child will feel being important and useful, he is certainly going to enjoy the time with you doing the shopping.

 

Plan your weekend to have some child-centered activities:  Everyday kids need some good time with their parents. It’s difficult for the working parents to give much time to their children on weekdays. Then why not utilize weekends in better way?

Plan you weekend in a better manner that will provide some dedicated time solely for your kid. This can be done by doing an indoor activity or by taking your kid for an outing.

 

Remember that it’s your imagination which can make your daily tedious jobs to cheerful and playful events and you also can spend some quality time with your kid. When you grow trying to be a good parent, you grow as a human being too.

 

 

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