Time is the most valuable thing we have in this life. Choosing how to spend our valuable time is something that can be hard at times. There are so many different things pulling at us eating up our precious time. At times, we miss out on spending quality time with the ones that should matter the most. Spending quality time with your child is incredibly important. Quality time does not mean just being a beating heart in the room with them. It means actually interacting with them and giving them attention the same way you would an adult.
The benefits of spending time with your child are a strengthened bond between you and your child, improved self esteem, it keeps your child on the right path, improved behavioral issues, strengthens your support system, develop life skills, and love at home.
So how does spending more time with your child bring about all of these benefits? Keep on reading and I will cover each benefit and how you can achieve it by spending more quality time with your child.
Creates A Strong Bond Between You And Your Child
By spending quality time with your child and making them feel valued you create a stronger bond with your child. When you get home from working a long hard day and your child comes running up to tell you about their day listen to them. At times its hard to separate work life and home life. It’s easy to bring all of the stress and frustration from your job into your home, but it should be kept separate. Your home should be a safe place for you and your family.
When your child can talk to you and have you actually listen then you will naturally create a bond with one another. Other simple ways to strengthen this bond is to have family meals together consistently, schedule time to spend together as a family, keep traditions, and have shared interests.
Eating together as a family is a great time to talk to your child or each one of your children. Find out how there day was, what they learned at school, and what they played at recess. Start this routine when they are young. Then when they are teenagers and don’t want to talk to anyone, you will know that you at least have that time at dinner talk. When both you and your spouse are working, taking the time to eat together can be hard. You may have difficulties lining up schedules with different work shift.
The bottom line is do the best you can eat simple meals, eat together on the weekends, have one parent eat with the kids if the other one is working, and pre plan meals so you know ahead of time what you are cooking.
Having scheduled family time is another great way to bond with your child. This can be family activities, family game night, going to church, or it could even be doing yard work together. The important thing is while you’re spending time together to actually talk and have conversations with your child, find out what they like to do, what they are struggling with, what their strengths are.
Family traditions create bonds that can bring families together for a lifetime. If your family has a tradition then stick with it and do it year after year. The common family traditions are getting together with family over the holidays, but you can come up with whatever activity your family likes to do. My wife’s grandma is Filipino and one of their traditions is to cook Filipino food. One of a the craziest ones I’ve heard of from a friend of mine is that there family gets together every year and eats pizza on fine china in the dark. It sounds crazy, but traditions really do create a bond within a family that last even after your child is grown and out of the house.
Having shared interests with your child will really strengthen the bond between the two of you. It will also create ample opportunities to spend quality time with your child. When the two of you are both passionate about something that drive will naturally pull the two of you together. There are numerous things that you could share an interest in with your child. It could be a hobby, sports, crafting, outdoor activities, or gaming to name a few.
Strengthens Your Child’s Self Esteem
Spending quality time with your child will really make them feel good about themselves. By you taking time out of your busy day to devote to them will make them feel valued and have worth. As you spend time with your child be sure to compliment them and build them up. Let them speak, don’t try to talk over them, or always try to put in your two cents. Really listen to what they have to say and take it in. Listening to what they have to say and responding with them will help to build up their self esteem and courage. In school and any group setting they will feel more confident to speak up and let their voice be heard if you are encouraging that behavior at home.
Helps Keep Your Child On The Right Path
Spending time with your child and having shared interest will help to keep them on the right path. When families have shared interests or scheduled activities that begin at a young age, those shared interests will carry on to when your child is a teenager. As you spend time with your child it will help keep them engaged in wholesome activities. This will in turn help to keep them on a path that will lead to happiness. Spend time with your child, build that bond, and keep them on the right path.
Improves Academic Performance
Spending time at an earlier age helping your child with their school work will create an environment at home that values academics. Taking the time to read them a book, help them with their math problems, having them rewrite their homework so its legible, or dream up and build that science project will really help your child improve academically. I think too many times we as parents just depend on teachers to do all of the teaching. Learning should be a combined effort between the parents and teacher.
However, at the same time you don’t want to make your child hate learning, so there needs to be a balance. Your child should be comfortable enough to come to you with questions they have with their school work.
Can Help With Behavioral Issues
By spending quality time with your child they are less likely to have behavioral issues within the family or at school. When children feel that they are loved and respected from their parents they are more likely to have fewer arguments and fights with family members. They are also less likely to have disobedience problems at school when they are happy and loved at home.
Strengthens Your Support System
When your child spends time with you it strengthens the bond between the two of you. The bond that you develop with your child will help make them feel comfortable confiding in you. Having a strong support system is very important for the development of your child. If they have you to turn to in times of need, crisis, or just life questions then it can help prevent them from taking that advice from a non credible source. For example, you don’t want your child finding out information on drugs from a peer at school that is currently doing drugs. A much better alternative would be for them to be comfortable enough to come to you for advice.
Develops Life Skills For Your Child
Spending time with your child provides tons of opportunities to teach your child life skills. Have them help you cook dinner, teach them how to clean, do laundry, fix that leaky faucet, grow a garden, fix the car, or whatever skill you think they should learn. Doing this activities with your child is sure to make it take 10 times longer. Instead of looking at that as a negative thing think of the extra time you get to spend with your child and all of the new things they are learning.
Improves Love At Home
One of the biggest benefits of spending time with your child is having love at home. Day to day life can be hectic, busy, and just plain crazy. Having a home where there is love and mutual respect between everyone is so great. That doesn’t mean there’s not going to be crying, mood swings, complaining, and whining. It means at the end of all of that there will still be love. Having a home that is a sanctuary from the world where your child feels safe and able to express themselves is great place to be in. The bottom line is spending quality time with your child is critically important to their development and in keeping a strong family bond.