Time is always tight, whether you're a stay-at-home mom or a 9-to-5 office dweller. Finding ways to connect with your children, fast, can help you create a more cohesive family and a more pleasant family life. Here are five quick ways to connect with your kids:
Cook together. You've got to get dinner on the table anyway, so why not make kitchen time into quality time? Use the time together to catch up on the day, share upcoming events, and make plans for the week. Make sure to keep from criticizing your child or over-instructing them as to how to accomplish the tasks. You want to make your child feel comfortable, not make them wish they'd never offered to help. Bonus: By helping you slice and dice, your kids will be more likely to try what you cook!
Read together. Reading out loud to your kids, no matter what their age, is a wonderful way to create quality time. Pick favorites from your own childhood and share your memories with your kids. Chapter books let you pick up immediately where you left off. Classics to try: Charlotte's Web, the Little House on the Prairie series, and the Harry Potter series. Bonus: Studies show that reading out loud to your children helps with their vocabulary as well as their reading comprehension and imagination.
Snuggle. Little ones need physical closeness, so take a few minutes to sit and snuggle. Any talk is in addition to the physical connection. Even just a few minutes of body-to-body touch can reload your little one's heart. Bonus: Skin-to-skin contact lowers blood pressure!
Take a walk. Even a fifteen-minute walk around the block will give you time to disconnect from the rest of your day and reconnect with your family. Talk about what you see - the changing season, the animals, the new car the neighbor has parked in the driveway. Bonus: you'll get some great exercise, too!
Listen. Invite your child to tell you stories from his or her day, and actually LISTEN to what they tell you. Set aside anything else you are doing and concentrate just on your child's words. Five minutes of undivided attention is more powerful than any other gift you can offer. Bonus: Taking your mind off your to-do list will lower your anxiety.
Connecting with your kids doesn't have to take hours of time and specially scheduled events. You can do it, right now, today, wherever you are.