In today’s era of tablets and endless content, it’s sometimes hard to spend some quality time with your young children. Add in the pressures of modern life, working a 9 to 5 job and taking charge of a family, and it can feel like you never get to sit down with your little ones one on one. The good news is that you don’t have to block out days of your week to make more time for your children - below, we’ve put together some simple activities that allow you to spend more quality time together, bonding and getting to shape your kids into great people.
Consider tech-free sessions
Whether it’s a Monday morning or a Sunday afternoon, why not turn off the internet router and stop your children from sitting on their iPads? Tech-free days allow your children to spend some proper time together - and it’ll be good for your own mental wellbeing, too, allowing you to forget about emails, Twitter, and text messages for a couple of hours. Play some games, do some gardening, or even tidy up the house together and put aside some things to donate to charity. Experts say that children aged 2-5 years should have no more than an hour a day, and children aged 5-18 years should have no more than two hours a day on their devices - limiting their screen time can have a serious impact on their development.
Make and eat meals together
If free time is limited due to work and school, then spend some time together in the kitchen, preparing a delicious snack or dinner. Simple meals that require little preparation, like salads and pasta dishes, can be an opportunity to spend time together and teach your little ones the basics of cooking, like sensibly using hot water and managing a timer. They’ll learn new skills, take some of the pressure off of you over meal times, and you can sit down and enjoy your food together whilst you discuss your days. Introducing children to food preparation at a young age is also good for their health - make sure your dishes are packed with vegetables!
Watch some cartoons together
Okay, we get it: sitting in front of a television screen might not be your idea of “quality time,” but young children can learn a lot from their parents by watching fun and educational shows together. Indeed, cartoons for boys like Everything’s Rosie can help you teach them lessons like sharing, friendship, and loss, and if you watch it with them, you can ask them questions about the characters and their behaviour so that they learn as they play. You can also spend some time together enjoying services like Disney+ - watch a movie with some popcorn and a drink and you’ll have hours of entertainment, without having to leave the comfort of the sofa!
Set aside time to ‘connect’
If you’re not always around when your child is at home, it can be easy to feel like you don’t get to see them at all during the day. Setting aside some time to ‘connect’ can be a good way to ensure your little ones get some face time with you every day, even if you do have to rush off to work for a night shift. Creating a routine that can’t be broken will give your little one something to look forward to, and ensure you’re spending quality time with them every day, no matter what. It could be something as simple as bath time, reading a book before bed, or walking the dog. And when you’re not around, you can create routines in other ways - for example, writing them a daily note in their lunchbox or a message on their whiteboard.
Meaningful connections are about the quality of the time you spend together, not the amount of time. Keep it simple and follow the techniques we’ve discussed to spend more quality time with your toddlers and children, and check back to the blog soon for more parenting tips.