As a responsible parent, you must play an active role in the growth and development of your kids. As much you need a nanny to help you with the care of your children, you shouldn’t delegate the role of raising your child to them. That’s still your responsibility, theirs is to help.
So, despite your busy schedule, create time to spend some quality time together with your kids. If you can’t see them in the morning or evening because of work demands, ensure that you give them the focus and attention they need and deserve over the weekends.
The quality of the time you spend with them is more important than the time span. You could be spending time with your kids alright but it can be in toxic ways. The toxic time you spend with your children include being on the phone the whole time you are with them, or raising your voice at them because of unrelated. You need to spend quality time with your kids in ways that nurtures them.
Here are ways to spend quality time with your kids.
Reading
Your kids will pick up the habit of leisure reading if you are an ardent reader yourself and you encourage them to love books.
Reading to your kids from the time when they are babies has been shown to help them master communication and language skills faster than their peers.
If you have older kids, create a home library with a variety of books to choose from and set durations during which all the electronics in the house are out of reach and everyone is immersed in their books.
Storytelling
Another great way to build your children’s language and public speaking skills is to have family storytelling sessions. You can narrate the stories from the books you have read or a creatively composed story.
You can use this sessions to pass down family lore and history down to your kids and also teach them about morals in a fun and exciting way.
To add some spice to your sessions, include a trivia segment to test each other’s knowledge on past and recent news like where the 80 million year old shark was found.
Get out in nature
Get your kids outdoors and find suitable activities. Outdoor adventures can help your kids grow stronger bones and help them deal with symptoms of ADHD in addition to taking them out of the confines of the house where they are mostly tempted to watch the TV or be on their phones.
For outdoor fun, you can take you kids on a road trip, hiking or just travel the world together.
Attend their events at school
Attending your child’s school events makes them feel loved and cared for. Moreover, by showing up and cheering them on, you are also encouraging them to build their talents.
So, if your child has a drama or sports event at school, make sure you turn up and support them.