The Importance of Spending Time with Your Children

How many times a day do you catch yourself saying, "not now" or "I don't have time"?

Now, how many times a day do you catch yourself saying this to your children? Too

many times we, as busy moms, get caught up in the daily grind of our family's lives and

trying to get everything done that needs to be done, but we forget the real reasons why

we're trying to bake 4 dozen cookies, schedule a doctor's appointment, make out a

grocery list and go to the store, make sure our child's soccer jersey is clean and ready

to go for the game that is scheduled at 5 p.m., have dinner ready before leaving for said

soccer game, and squeeze in homework - all before putting our children to bed. Then,

we take the next few hours to get caught up on housework such as dishes, laundry, and

general tidying up when one of our children, or even your spouse, comes up and

reminds you that you have a family get-together the next day that you are supposed to

cook 3 dishes for! So, you stay up half the night preparing for the next day knowing that

you are going to be completely exhausted but expected to put on a happy face.

I cannot begin to tell you how important it is to take time out to just spend time with your

child. If you have more than one child, then you need to spend time with each of them

individually. Taking the time to get to really know a child not only helps to boost your

child's moral, but it also helps to bring you closer together. This, in turn, builds strong

bonds when that child is out on their own. They will see you not only as their parent, but

as close friend and confidant. And, as long as you are honest with them, they will be

honest back to you. They will know that they can trust you with problems that they are

dealing with and know that you will help them get through them. This also teaches them

how to be with other people and, one day, with their own children. They will remember

how you took the time to spend with them and get to know them, and they will want to

do the same for their children as well.

As for family time, it is another great opportunity to show your children what it means to

turn off all the televisions, computer, and game systems. When you do not have any

other distractions around, pull out a deck of cards or a favorite board game, plan some

favorite snacks for finger foods, and just have fun! You will be surprised what you will

learn from your children even while playing a board game. This is another great

opportunity to get to know your children. You will see how they interact with others,

especially during a competition, and you will see how well they win or lose. If you find

the your child is a poor loser, you can take the time to show them (in a gentle, loving

way), how to congratulate the winner and show how proud you are of the person that

won, but you also show praise to your other children that did not win by praising how

well they did play the game and how much fun you had spending that time with them.

Another great way to spend time together as a family is to go to a local park, or even an

amusement park or museum. Talk about all the different things that there are to do or

see, and then make sure to do/see everyone's favorites. Make sure and take the

camera along so that you can capture some of these memories for your

scrapbook/photo album.

One more great way to spend time together would be to prepare a meal together. Let

everyone be in charge of a particular item on the menu. Make sure and supervise

smaller children and help them when necessary, even little ones can toss a salad or

crack an egg with supervision. Let them measure ingredients out. They really love this

and will really feel like they are contributing. It's been proven that children who help

prepare foods will often eat them where as they would not eat them if someone else

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