How To Manage Time With Children
Long working hours, busy schedules and a busy schedule make it increasingly difficult to spend time with your family. In this article, we will give you some tips on how to manage the time you spend with your children, both in terms of quantity and quality.
Spending time with children is vitally important
Due to work and daily obligations, it is increasingly difficult to find time to spend with your children. In many households, especially those where both parents work, children are placed in the care of their grandparents or other people outside the family for much of the day.
However, the figure of the parents is irreplaceable in a child’s life and the presence of both is fundamental for a correct emotional development.
Children who do not receive the necessary attention from their parents are more likely to develop an aggressive and insecure personality. It is common for them to feel lonely and show an affective deficit that is often expressed with the difficulty of showing and receiving affection. This situation can also affect academic performance.
Time to spend with children: quality or quantity?
Children who receive the right support from their parents are usually people with healthy self-esteem and self-confidence. It is easy and natural for them to establish emotional bonds and engage in successful social interactions. In addition, communication within the family becomes more satisfying and domestic relationships are of quality.
In light of all this, it is essential to know how to manage the time you spend with your children, giving them the right attention and company. Let’s see it in detail.
“Quality time”
Lately the concept of “quality time” is becoming more and more relevant. There are numerous viewpoints that promote this option as a solution to our busy lives. According to this approach, even if the time to spend with the children is short, if intense and well managed, it will be enough for both.
But unfortunately, there is nothing further from reality. Spending little time with your kids, even with lots of fun activities, won’t make up for your absence. Even if you just tell them you love them during that half hour, they won’t stop needing you for the rest of the day.
Quality is not a generic concept, on the contrary it is relative. It will not be important to go to the mountains, cycle or paint with watercolors together at home – it all depends on each child. To know what quality means to your children, you need to know them thoroughly and, therefore, you will need to dedicate time to them.
It is true that the working day is long and tiring and that there are many other obligations, but you must not think that carrying out demanding activities, even if short, will be able to replace your presence.
Time in quantity
And then there are those parents who, due to certain circumstances in their life, can spend much more time with their children. They must consider themselves lucky, especially those who can even dedicate the whole day to them.
However, these parents, calm and confident because they are physically present, may be absent in other ways, such as not paying attention to their children while having them around. It is useless to be in the same room with your children if you don’t listen to them when they want to tell you something or if you constantly look at your mobile phone while you are drawing together or if even while you help them with their homework you watch your favorite TV show.
Children not only need your physical presence, they also need to feel truly cared for, listened to and appreciated. They need real company.
How to manage time with children
So what’s the solution? A balance must be found between the quantity and quality of time spent with children. Of course, each person has their own life and circumstances are different according to each case, so the ideal is to give the best within your limits. But above all, be aware that you can decide.
Think that there are little things, like taking them with you to the supermarket, that can really make a difference. Sharing that moment by choosing what to buy together, teaching them to weigh fruit, chatting… will make them feel important and involved.
Asking them to help you with household chores, as if it were a game, might be another option to spend time together while doing something useful.
Remember: the most important thing is to pay them your full attention, look at them and listen to them when they want to show you or tell you something. Feeling your attention and your love will help them grow up feeling special and, therefore, confident.
