Quality Not Quantity

We've all heard it before, quantity verses quality. Most of us, in our parental status, know that quality is more important than quantity. But we are in a society that idolizes having more of everything than having the best of what you already have. Our actions do not always match what hearts tell us, and this has spilled over into the realm of our children.

Just because you spend a lot of time with them doesn't mean you are spending good and effective time.  Good time is time well spent, time that you spend doing things with your child that matters. Usually children will be more responsive to you and act better when you spend quality time with them.

Quality time is not the time you spend in the room with your children while you are on the phone or working on your computer. Quality time is the time you spend with your child teaching, learning, sharing, and having all round fun with them. Quality time is time spent creating memories that will last throughout your child's lifetime. You can turn quantity time to quality time if you start paying attention to the limited time that you have with your children and take it as an opportunity that you have with your children.

Vacations are great examples of quality time. But who has the time or finances for constant regular vacations? Instead, take a mini vacation, camp in the backyard, have picnics in the living room floor, light some candles at night and tell stories in the kitchen in the dark. Vacations don't have to be far from home or last for weeks, they can very easily be a break away from the normal day-to-day routine to make things special. If you can afford going on far away vacation and can save money on everything else of course you should consider that.

Small projects are great ways to spend time with your child. Simple projects like crafts and even backyard chores or baking a cake will give you and your child a sense of accomplishment together that will help you bond a stronger and more memorable relationship. And what a joy it is when you hear your child tell his or her friends about what you've done together.

Spending quality time with your child will help instill that pride of accomplishment, something that will enrich their self-esteem to great lengths. Also, healthy competition, like that from backyard sports, together, can help build your child's self esteem and you can teach them to be good winners, to deal with their failures, and to learn from their experience.

Another example of quality time is having time to sit down and talk with your children. Traditionally dinner time is a great time to talk with the whole family. Just turn off the TV and enjoy your each other's presence. Dinnertime can become an ordinary expected time to talk. Another good use for the dinner table is to host a family game night. Sitting around a game board is a relaxing fun time, which can ease tensions and give you the opportunity to have real conversations with your child.

The time that we have to spend with our children is precious. Making the best of it isn't always easy, and spending large amounts of time around your children, rather than with them isn't the way to go. The time we spend with our children needs to be spent doing memorable things and teaching them life lesson while we have fun or we create things.

When kids grow up, they will remember the time you were running around being busy doing your own things while they watched cartoons, and they also will remember the time that you set the whole living room up with fake trees and blankets for a pretend camping trip. Which one do you want them to remember?