Tips For Spending Quality Time With The Family
Families spend less and less time together, less time interacting with each other. The result is that many children are receiving less attention from their parents. The habit of enjoying quality family time is being lost.
A recent demographic study in the United States, for example, reported that parents today spend approximately 40% less time with their children than parents did a generation ago. Spending more time with the family and making this quality time is very important.
Quality family time has great benefits for children and family relationships, and their emotions and development. Sharing quality time improves family communication and bonding and relationships.
What is quality time?
Let’s take a moment to define what is considered ‘quality time’. Once the definition is established, we can see how it is possible to spend more quality time with the family, with our children and our partner.
Quality is in communication and sharing. The child, in addition, must be aware with an active role in the activity or situation that is being shared. It is important that you feel cared for, close and that you understand that it is a time to be together.
Create a family time calendar
Since many parents have very busy schedules, time with children can often become a low priority. We must prevent this from happening in a family. To do this, we can make a family time calendar.
To do this, we will put a calendar on the fridge and have both parents and children write special events for each day in pencil. It is about thinking about creative activities, moments to play or days of outings together, without more. It is important that we commit to respecting these hours.
Eat together as a family
Many of today’s kids don’t know what a family dinner really is. Communication and the unity that is created in this environment are fundamental to achieving a healthy family life. Sharing a meal together gives us the opportunity to talk about each other’s life and day.
The time to share a table is a perfect time for parents to listen to their children and give them advice and encouragement when they need it. Attentive listening conveys the message that one person is interested in another. All of this helps build trust among family members.
Spending quality time with the family: reading together often
There are several studies that affirm that reading in children develops an interest in knowledge and stimulates language development. In addition, it increases their attention span and helps them to be more curious.
To spend more quality family time together we can choose to read. Schedule a reading time in the afternoon on a weekend or summer day, or on weekdays, if we have that time.
After reading together for a while, we will talk about each other’s book, about the most interesting things we have read, what we like or don’t like about that book… This will create very beneficial moments of attention among family members.
Play together
New technologies have made the use of video games increasingly common in homes. We can play video games with the children and turn this into quality time, chatting while we play and having fun with them.
But we must not forget the board games. This will give us additional time and it is easier to be able to talk while playing a good board game than with most video games.
Plan and enjoy family outings
It is very important to leave the house together. We can simply get in the family car and take a walk stopping for a drink somewhere that the child finds attractive. But this shouldn’t be the only thing we do together as a family.
It is important to plan family outings, do things like ride a bike together, go for a walk in the country, or go to a museum together. Children are excited about planning these outings, waiting for them to come, and they really enjoy when they are happening.
Finally, we must insist that what is really important for children is the quality of time that adults spend with them, never the quantity. It is necessary to create a time in which they enjoy the company of the elderly, their affection and their attention.
