Globally, many are confined in their homes and have to find a way to manage their kids. Thanks to COVID-19, now all you have is time to re-discover and reconnect with your children.
Many parents spend a lot of time away from due to work and lack the time to get to know their children better. Others send their kids to boarding school at an early age to avoid “being stressed”. As a parent, this is the perfect time to get to connect with your children outside the digital space and form a lasting bond.
Here are just but a few tips to manage your time with your children:
1.Involve them in the house chores
Take a moment to teach them a few things on how to get around with chores in the house. By involving your kids right from the planning to the initial tasks, you instill the importance of organization as well as the importance of working together. It also takes away the burden of taking care of the house all alone as the parent and gives you time to chill.
2. Designate time for school work
Kids learn a lot of interesting things from school and you can decide to jump into what they have been learning to help them keep track and enjoy learning at the same time. Children enjoy sharing their ideas and you can set up debates to test their intellectual abilities. It also comes in handy for you as a parent since it allows you to gauge your child’s progress at school. More importantly, it can give an indication of their strengths and weaknesses.
3.Do something fun
A little fun once in a while is not that bad. Share some interesting skills you may have such as baking or painting or crafting. And when you are at it involve in interesting topics that are “less serious” and joke around and share a good laugh with your child. Even if it’s a disaster the main point is to get to know your child more.
4.Share your experiences when you were their age
Your child may never think of you as anything else other than their parent. Tell them something funny and goofy that you did when you were their age. Share some embarrassing moments that you experienced when you were young just to entertain them and make them aware that you were once a child and you can easily relate to them.
5.Share with them what your work is all about
Many children are not aware of what their parents do for a living. They just know you simply work. If you are a parent and working from home, take time to show your child what you do for a living and allow them to help out with simple tasks. This is just to make the most of their time and get to bond with you as a parent.
It’s important to make good use of this quarantine period to work on your relationships with your children instead of seeing them as a distraction. This may play a major role in building a strong stable family that can only be made possible if you bond with the children.
