Making Quality Time With Your Child

Quantity versus quality; what is the difference? When it comes to the family, which is better? On the one hand, quantity time can mean that your priority is to spend as much time as possible with your children. But, that also can mean that a lot of necessary things fall by the wayside. This being the case, quantity time is a much better approach when it comes to spending time with your children.

It is no surprise that we live in a hurry up world; there just never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish all the tasks that confront us and still have time left to spend with the family. We all know how important it is to spend time with the family; the trick is to find that time in the face of all that life demands of us. Maybe it’s time to prioritize your day to day lifestyle and, hopefully, you will be able to find that quality time you are looking for.

Start by taking an honest look at your household chore list. Maybe some chores can be done less frequently, or maybe you could assign some of the chores to your children, thus ‘buying back’ some time that can then be spent on your children. If you explain why you need them to help in order to have more time to spend with them, it is likely they will be more than willing to help. It may even be possible to leave some of the chores undone until after the children have gone to bed. The fact is, there are many creative ways of reorganizing your schedule to find the time for your children.

If you are the ‘chief cook and bottle washer’ consider preparing several meals on a designated day to then have ready the rest of the week. This is a trade off that really works, because you are already in the kitchen, so why not stay there a bit longer and ‘buy back’ some more time later in the week by having meals prepared ahead of time? You might consider getting the older children involved in the meal preparation as well. Not only will the help be appreciated but they will be learning how to cook for when they grow up. In addition, you will be spending some truly quality time with them while teaching them how to prepare a meal; a win-win situation.

There are many other ideas you can consider that combine something that needs to be done with involving the children in the process. Maybe that trip to the grocery store can become an outing with the children, showing them how to shop. Or a visit to the park for an impromptu picnic will combine a meal eaten together in the great outdoors. You might even plan an evening meal together to just talk and share what is going on in each other’s life.

No matter what you choose to do to find that quality time to then spend on the children, be honest with yourself and remember this one thing: the dirty dishes or laundry will always be there; your children will not. Take the necessary steps to carve out of your busy day some quality time to then spend with your children before they grow up and are gone with lives of their own, full of busy schedules and no time for you!