Parenting Tips for Busy Families

Parents have the overall goal of helping their children to become well adjusted, intelligent and capable citizens at every stage of development. Parents can develop support systems found within the local school systems, day care providers, community activities and local congregations. Although there are many things parents can do with their immediate family or share with other parents to practice parenting skills, parents may find working with games, egg timers and scheduling may help.

Egg Timer Activities
Parents can use egg timers in situations with chores, setting boundaries and with discipline. For example, if the children need to clean their rooms or everyone is assigned to do chores, an egg timer can be set for 15 minutes with an invitation for some friendly competition. A phrase or comment like, "Let's see who can get their chores done before the timer goes off!" can encourage this. An egg timer can be set when younger children are in a timeout keeping an accurate time of each timeout session. For parents that may be in a very emotional situation, the egg timer can be set for the parent to have a time of "cooling off."

I Spy Variations
The "I Spy" game can be changed to any particular situation that will help the kids learn a concept they might be working on in school. Playing the "I Spy" game with your kids while in the car or out in public will increase your interaction with the children, help them learn and open the door for other types of communication. For example if a child is learning about different types of rocks, while on a family outing near a body of water, you can help the child identify "I spy a sedentary rock," and having the child "spy" other types of rocks. This can work with business concepts during trips to the mall, numbers and letters when grocery shopping or identifying different species of animals in a pet store.

Meeting Time
Set up special meeting time either right before dinner, right after dinner or right before bed time where you can devote ten to fifteen minutes for each child to give that child undivided attention. Putting a special meeting time into place and sticking to it, will show your children that they have dependable access to you helping to keep communication lines open. This can be especially helpful when children begin dealing with more difficult situations with their peers.

Household Coordination Practice
Develop routines that will make getting out the door in the morning, getting to sports practice or other meetings easier for everyone. For example, lay out clothes to be worn the next day the night before and leave the laundry for an evening that doesn't include sports meetings. Allow natural consequences to take place when a child doesn't do his or her part in the family chores, such as having to wash a clean cup for juice in the morning after not doing the dishes the night before. Create a wall chart or a master calendar for the family to get more organized and stick to it. Reducing household organizational stress can help you respond more calmly in other parenting situations.