Parenting Priorities: Make Time To Have Fun With Your Kids 😄

Life is hectic, especially when both parents are working full time and raising children. Coming home most nights resembles a domestic whirlwind as we try and sort out dinner, clean the kitchen, get the kids bathed, sort out homework, check message books and generally just run around like crazy trying to sort as much out as possible. This is just the way it is if we all only get home after five in the afternoon. The problem I have with this nightly rush is that in trying to sort it all out as quickly as possible I tend to moan a lot.

You know how it goes, “Soren, pick up your socks.” “Katalina, I’m coming with your milk.” “Please share the tablet with your sister so she can also watch.” “Please put your bag in your room.” “Why haven’t you put your bowl in the sink yet.” This goes on and on until eventually everyone is settled, which is normally around 8 o’clock. Doesn’t sound cool hey?

The point I’m trying to make is that we all need to also make time to have some fun with our children. To be honest they really don’t care about the dishes or whether dinner is ready as soon as possible. What they do care about is you. They haven’t seen you all day. Sure, they have had fun with their friends but they are also tired and your moaning and nagging about everything is not helping. In fact, how would you feel if you were the one on the receiving side? Granted if they would just do it in the first place then you wouldn’t have to moan, right? Well to that all I will say is, “what young kid will just do the non fun stuff without some nagging?”

That’s one of the things I love the most about children. They do what makes them happy. They do what they think is fun. They are young and they don’t really have any responsibilities yet. They shouldn’t have anything that is stressing them out. For them fun is the order of the day. While raising them to be well balanced and to understand responsibility is important, it shouldn’t distract from spending quality time having fun with them occasionally too. Live life through their eyes for a bit. You’ll be surprised how doing this makes you feel too.

It doesn’t even have to be hectic time-consuming activities. Please don’t choose ones that will just lead to you becoming frustrated as that defeats the purpose. Some of the things that I like to do are the following:

• Jamming to an awesome song in the car on the way home
• Tickling games
• Singing nursery rhymes
• Letting my children show me something they find interesting
• Bubble baths together
• Letting them help me with something around the house, and no this is not in a child labor kinda way haha
• Let them draw me a picture and then go on about how much I love it
• Snuggle with them while they are watching something on TV
• Taking silly photos and selfies
• Random hugs, I love this one

There are a lot more, but I think you get the idea. Just have fun with it and be a little silly. Your kids will enjoy it and you will to. The house work can wait and at the end of the day I would much rather have a messy house with happy kids than the other way around.

Thank you for reading and remember to keep smiling 😊
All photos were taken by me 😉, with my Samsung Galaxy S8 or S3

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