One of the most difficult parts of being a parent is balancing outside activities and commitments with family time, especially as the children get older.
When you spend quality time with your kids, you strengthen the bond between the family and remove any doubt within them of how much they’re loved.
Your children might begin to feel emotionally distressed and start engaging in vices due to a lack of love and attention. More so, their school performance might suffer, and they could develop anti-social behaviors as a result of your absence.
We wouldn’t want that, would we?
So if you’re always staying away from home, coming in when the kids must have gone to bed and leaving very early the following day, you’ll need to find a way to balance your work, social commitments, and your family life.
The following five tips can help you achieve that to enjoy a healthy and engaging relationship with your kids.
1. Prepare a Meal Together
Getting everyone involved in meal preparation is a fantastic way to spend family time. You can introduce a day for that once a month, and it becomes a tradition.
Want to learn one secret?
Consider dedicating that day to preparing an old recipe passed on through your mother. That’ll make it more special and a day to look forward to.
Once in a while, you can organize a small backyard barbecue party just for the family, grill steaks and chicken wings, sit on the deck, and just have fun.
Remember to use a charcoal grill rather than the gas option, seeing as the taste differs. Charcoal is a popular fuel source among the grillers because of the flavor it infuses inside the food when used to grill.
2. Help With School Work
If your kids are still small, take time off sometimes to help with their school work. At this point, their school is their second home, so you need to check in on that part of their lives.
That way, you can skillfully figure out their strong points and weaknesses and help them where necessary.
Spending time with them will enable them to open up about any challenges they’re having at school and instill confidence in speaking up concerning other matters besides school issues.
I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be kept in the dark when your kids are going through problems.
3. Tidy the House Together
Although cleaning the house sounds like the apocalypse to people like me, doing it together as a family makes it fun.
Let me let you in on a secret!
I usually recruit my oldest kids to help out in decluttering the house, revamping the home, or just moving furniture around, while we incorporate a game or two, such as catch, to make it more fun. That way, we have a fun day while still getting the house cleaned up.
A big win for my lazy self (I know, please don’t hate me. I ought to feel bad about using them, but hey, they aren’t complaining).
4. Have a Meal Together
Ensure to always have at least one meal every day as a family. You can have dinner or breakfast together because it isn’t possible to have lunch because of your work and the children’s school.
The point is, eat together as a family at least once a day and make use of that opportunity to talk about your day, share your feelings and thoughts and enjoy each other’s presence.
5. Fix Things Together
Fixing things together is another way to spend quality time together and increase the family bond.
Do you want to repaint the rooms, fix the broken kitchen sink? The children will be delighted to help.
These tasks can help them learn new things. For instance, repairing the kitchen sink might help your child understand how a faucet works, and asking your kid to help paint the wall might unleash their creative talent.
I’m sure you wouldn’t want your kids to miss out on these benefits, would you?
Summary
Spending time with your family should be among your top priority. Remember, the bond you create with your children today will go a long way in influencing their lives even after leaving home.
Spending quality time with them is the key to developing this bond. You can engage in game nights, cooking together, or other types of activities to improve the bonding experience. Check for more tips at Kuku-Nest on how to improve your family relationship before your babies leave their nest.