Growing up, I always dreamed of growing up, getting married, and having a family. Though I had many other ideas of things I might do, that is the one thing that has always been constant in my heart.
So today, though it isn’t easy, I am living my dream! In the midst of the hardships and trials, I want to share with you why spending quality time with your kids doesn’t have to be complicated.
It’s so easy to get sucked into the social media craze. As I’ve said before, “Comparison is the thief of Joy.”
Pinterest shows us beautiful crafts and science experiments all done with attentive children.
Homeschooling blogs and vlogs show us hours of reading done while children peacefully play.
Facebook shows us the Mom’s and Dad’s taking their children to shows, movies, and plays.
But the reality is that our kids don’t always want to do crafts and when they do, they never look like Pinterest and just the other day, the science experiment I tried with Dilly didn’t work. #reallife
The reality is that my two out of three of my kids don’t like hours of reading aloud. In fact, they complain or sometimes fight when it’s been too long. We still read aloud but we generally max out at about 45 minutes.
The reality is that our budget often doesn’t include the extra money for shows, movies, and plays. When we do those things, we have often saved for quite a while to do them.
The reality is that we often run out of time for all these things. When we do them, we’ve usually intentionally set aside the time to do them.
But Quality Time with your kids doesn’t have to be complicated
#1: One of my favorite memories of my Mom is listening to her read Little House on the Prairie to us kids in the winter time.
-So even though my parents didn’t have a lot of spare money when I was growing up, I still have great memories with them.
#2: One of my children absolutely loves going for a walk with me. It is quality time at its finest because this child opens up and talks to me during this time.
#3: Another of my children just loves to play catch. This is a time that this child chats about all the things that are important to them and I just listen.
#4: I love taking one child along when I go grocery shopping. Not only is it an awesome time to chat (and get a little treat) but it’s so much easier than taking all of the kids along.
#5: I have chosen to regularly schedule in one-on-one time with my children.
-It is simple. Most weekdays, I take the time to spend 30 minutes with one child doing something that they love. My other two children usually spend time with one another which is quality time for them as well.
#6: Taking the time to just sit and watch a movie with them.
#7: Going for walks with the kids or to the park.
What’s important about spending quality time with your children?
The most important thing about spending quality time with your children is just to show up and do it! I know life gets busy and it’s hard to fit it in, but I truly believe that it is rewarding to do the hard work. It’s easy to say I’ll do it someday, but the reality is that someday may never come.
So while spending quality time with your kids doesn’t have to be complicated, it’s important to take the time to actually do it.
Whether you simply take all your kids to the park, just listen to a kid talk when they need to, or take a big trip making sure to engage your children as often as possible, makes it much easier to work at capturing their hearts.
How about you? How do you spend quality time with your children?
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*All Photos are my own*