How to Spend Time with your Kids, when you have a busy schedule

Have you noticed that today even when we are working from home it seems we have less time to spend with our kids?

At the beginning of COVID crisis we all thought working from home would be great. I will have more time to do things, I will manage my time better and I will spend more time with my kids. But in fact today I noticed what happened was we discovered more time to work, since we don’t have to commute, we have less patience and less time for our kids. And this is a big problem, the key for a happy life is to find WORK-FAMILY balance.

Spending quality time with our children is extremely important for their development and happiness. We must find ways to find time for our children. We planned for so long to have kids, we dreamt for so long and we had in our minds that it would be amazing. So now it’s our mission to make it happen the way we dreamed. 

Recent studies have shown that the average time parents spent with their children is 5h per week. Yes 5h only. You all must be saying, “No way I pass more time than that” It’s sad but we don’t, but we should.

Some Parents will blame the Television, or the fact that this is the new era of technology and it’s normal that they spent more time on their tablets or computers and subsequently less time as a family.

We can’t blame the kids or our jobs. It’s our job also to raise our kids and educate and support them. But also to pass quality time together just for fun.

There is time for everything if we plan and make a real schedule.

Have a Daily Fun moment with your child

You will be amazed with what 15min per day can do to your kids. They don’t ask much. If you take 15min a day from your busy life to dedicate to them everything will be better.

In my house we have a rule, everyday before going to bed we go up and we play a game for 15min. The game is never chosen by me. It’s up to them to decide what they want to play. But don’t forget, this is a Parent kid activity, so no technology involved. I encourage you to disconnect the TV and your mobile while you play.

For us it’s games like Catch, Hide and seek, Zombie night and even other new games that they create the rules on the fly.

The most important is that we have huge fun and we laugh a lot.

To finish we have our bed rituals, like the “Mom sing for me our song”.

Meals are a family time

In our house the meal time is a family time. We started to involve more and more of our kids in the food making process. They are 8 and 6 but they already know how to do some basic cooking and they love it. While they are next to us, they are passing time with us and they feel happy. At the same time they are learning something that they will need in the future. So it’s a win win situation. 

After the meal is ready they have to prepare the table. Which is a good starting point for someone that has smaller children.

After we all go to the table together and we promote a light and fun loving moment talking about the day, laughing at some crazy stories from school.

No tv, no phones just us the family. 

And forget the quick meals, this should be slow eating and lots of talking time.

Tell them you love them everyday

We love our kids from the moment we know we are pregnant. It's an invisible love at the beginning that has a first date scheduled within 9 months. From that day on our priorities shift completely and they become the most important thing in the world. For the first years of their little lives we tell them “I love you” more than 100 times a day. As they start to grow we tend to say less. And this is not ok. But it’s normal, we don’t pass 24h with them anymore. 

They started to go to school, they are able to play alone or with a sibling, and they don’t need our help in the bathroom. Life starts to get more complicated since they start to have an opinion. But they will be our babies forever, even when they will be 40 years old. 

So why to stop saying I love you? There is no reason at all.

Raising a child in an environment where love is shown and given will make them not be afraid to love and will create an image of what a normal family should look like.

In my case, I like to tell I love them before they go to sleep while tucking them in their dream nests, but also immediately after they wake up. Well, I also like to tell them when they jump out of the car and run to school, I love when they stop and run back and give me a huge kiss followed by the warmest hug there is.

And while I’m writing this I’m already finding new ways to say even when they are not around, for example, writing a note “I love you, you are my world, Have a great day today at school” and put in their school bag, so like this when they open the bag the first thing they will see is how much I love them.

Life is short, they grow up fast and one day it will be too late to say “I LOVE YOU” so tell them everytime you can because it’s never too much.

Bonus Covid TIME tip

While we are stuck at home with them during this COVID time we must include in our schedule a 15min break every 2h. And spend some time with them. The fact we stop and go to them, hug them and kiss them and ask what are they doing is enough for them to decompress as well. Don’t forget that if this COVID thing for us is heavy imagine for them with less freedom and less activities to do outside.