Quality Time with the Kids

There is really no set timetable for 'quality time' spent with your kids. Consider this: when the parent is ready to spend quality time, the child may not ready or have other plans in mind. Therefore, your idea of quality time might not match your child's requirements at the moment. Sound really complicated, doesn't it? But the truth is, quality time comes in the context of quiet time. So, after all those quiet moments, when you spent time teaching your child or playing together, you might just look back and say, "Hey, we really had a good-time."

Spending time with your children does not stop when they become teenagers. In fact, it is all the more vital that parents continue to be supportive, encouraging and understanding during this difficult period when their children are experiencing physical and emotional changes. Spending quality time with your children isn't always easy or fun. In fact, it can be tiring, discouraging and even irritating. It could be the time spent disciplining your child for being naughty or caring for him when he is ill. In the long run though, it's time well-spent, a lifelong investment in a person - your own flesh and blood.

A couple, both teachers in their late thirties, plan carefully to make sure that they spend personal time with each of their three children. After 11 years of happy marriage and family life, they offer some suggestions on spending quality time with your children. The keyword here is 'togetherness' and the secret of spending quality time with your children is simply being available.

- Make it a point to spend time together once a week. Involve children in a family activity such as storytelling, playing games or enjoying music. Children not only get to have fun but also learn about communicating as a family unit.

- Read together. Sadly, most of us don't have time to cultivate a reading habit in our children. Share the joys of discovering a book together by reading aloud.

- Do something together, for example, a drawing of the family or a handicraft to show either parent. Children get a sense of achievement and at the same time, learn the joy of working with their parents.

- Do chores together. A simple household chore like cutting grass or washing the car can be used to teach the child how to use equipment and handle family responsibilities while communicating during work as well.

- For the sport enthusiast, it helps to exercise together as a family. It's fun and keeps the family fit as well.

- Regular outings help to adapt children to different surroundings, in the security of their parents' presence. Along the way, the car or the train ride can be used as teaching period when the children ask questions about what they see and sense during the trip.

- Parents should try to avoid adult talk when the children are around. Many of us take our work problem home with us and sometimes, husband and wife have so much to catch up on that they tend to exclude the children. They forget that their children cannot identify with the situation, not just yet any way.

- Listen to what the children are saying. Sometimes, parents don't realise it, but they are merely dispensing instructions instead of communicating. More words with positive intonations such as 'perhaps you could' should be used instead of a distinct 'you should'.