Many parents, busy with their jobs, careers and other pressures, are quick to give money and other things to their children. It’s too easy to overlook that, rather than money and other things, what they really crave is our time with them. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of parental involvement. Children simply need their parents. They want and require their love, attention, support and encouragement. If you take the time to look around and notice well-balanced, secure children, you can usually follow the involvement trail right back to their parents. Get involved with your children. You will reap rich dividends for yourself and them.
Teaching values takes time—a scarce commodity for many parents today. “Our increasingly competitive economy is creating an environment where Mom and Dad are spending longer hours at work and fewer hours with their children,” observes Gary Hill, Ph.D., director of Clinical Services at The Family Institute at Northwestern University.
What’s a parent to do? “You need to make time to be with your kids and make the time you have with them really count,” Dr. Hill urges. “Talk with them about what’s right and wrong, and what constitutes good behavior and what doesn’t.”
“Don’t let yourself get so busy that you stop having ‘real’ conversations with your kids,” urges Dr. Hill. It sounds cliché, but children do grow up very fast. Depending on their age, you may have them living in your home for just five or 10 more years. “You need to use the time you have with your kids very wisely,” concludes Dr. Hill. “Make sure you build time into your schedule for consistent, quality, face time with your kids—while they’re still kids.”
Here are a few tips to get you started with making time for family activities:
PLANNING Family Time – use a billboard to display daily, weekly and monthly schedules and activities for Family Time; this will help you to turn vague promises into specific commitments!
Family Time INDOORS – do things together indoors, e.g. board games, maintaining the family photo album or scrapbook, etc. Check out some cool board games… http://www.thefamilytimestore.com/custom.em?pid=789200
Family Time OUTDOORS – do things together outdoors, e.g. play ball games, fly kites, hike, camp, etc. To get you started this SPRING, buy tents, camping and hiking gear… http://www.thefamilytimestore.com/custom.em?pid=789202
Family Time MEMORIES – take digital photos of your Family Time so you can look back at them and remember the good times you’ve had! Check out digital video/still cameras… http://www.thefamilytimestore.com/custom.em?pid=789204
Welcome to TheFamilyTimeStore.com Blog!
In line with our banner of “FAMILIES DOING THINGS TOGETHER”, we’d like to hear your ideas about things that you have done, or are doing, as a family — things that have strengthened your family bond and opened the lines of communication between family members.
We’d also love to hear about any products you have used from our website that have supported these family times. [If there are other products you wish we offered on the site please let us know that too.]
We are committed to sharing these ideas so that members of our blog community can learn from each other and can experience family time at its best!
With the warmer weather, how about doing something with the family outdoors — see our products at http://www.thefamilytimestore.com/custom.em?pid=789202
