As a parent, it’s incredibly important to bond with your children. It helps them to grow up feeling loved and safe, it shows them what healthy relationships are like, and it even helps them to do better at school. Yet it can be hard to truly bond, even when you desperately want to. There is so much we need to get done (or think we need to get done) in our busy lives that we can find we are all doing separate activities, and that bonding never actually takes place. Or it might be easy when the children are little, but it becomes much harder when they are growing up. If that sounds like your life, here are some great ways to bond more with your children.
Take A Vacation Together
One amazing way to truly bond well with your children is to take a vacation together. No one is going to be distracted by work or school, and you will all be able to fully concentrate on what is happening right now, right in front of you—you will all be able to enjoy the vacation to its fullest.
When you are away from home together you can experience new activities, try new food, and just be together much more than normal. Take this opportunity to find out more about your children; ask them questions about themselves because, even if you think you know them very well, there will always be aspects of their personalities or their dreams for the future that might surprise you.
You don’t have to spend a lot to go away on vacation if you don’t want to. As well as being able to use Delta Vacations coupons to save money, you could simply go on a local camping trip or go away for one week instead of two. You might even have a ‘staycation’ at home, with no work or school to think about.
Read Together
One of the major issues parents face when trying to bond with their children is the prevalence of screens in their lives; they are everywhere, and children are starting to use them from an earlier age. Although useful for both entertainment and education, children must have a break from these screens, and reading together is a great way to ensure this happens.
Schedule time each day, perhaps just after lunch or at bedtime like the traditional bedtime story, and read together. For younger children, this could be you reading aloud to them, and for older children it could just be quiet time together enjoying your own books (or the same book, which you can then discuss between you the next day, offering more chance for bonding). Children will start looking forward to this quiet time, and for many it is their favorite time of the day.
Have A Date Day Or Night
Sometimes, all that a child actually wants is some alone time together with their mom or dad. This can be hard when there are other siblings or when work takes up a lot of time, yet it can increase your bond dramatically.
Schedule in a ‘date day’ or ‘date night’ once a month. You can plan it ahead of time, make sure you have the tickets you need, or the food or the time, or whatever else it is you are going to need to make the date a success. Then enjoy that time with your child and make it special so their memories are all good ones.
