One Way to Be a Better Parent Today, Tomorrow and Forever
One action that can have such a big impact.
One action that has no monetary cost.
It’s so easy that everyone could do it.
Once you’ve started it would easily become a habit.
After a while (or perhaps immediately), you will enjoy it so much you’ll never want to give it up, in fact there’s a danger you may become addicted…
This action takes 30 minutes and barely any effort at all. Take action now in 3 steps.
1. Put the answer phone on, turn the mobile off, do whatever it takes to find 30 minutes of uninterrupted time.
2. Find your children and go to their bedroom/playroom/garden.
3. Tell them they can choose a toy, a game, or any activity that they’d like you to do together. If your children are too young to choose, get the toys out and just play, or draw, or talk, or sing….spend 30 solid minutes playing, talking and being together.
Repeat Daily
Don’t look back and regret the half an hour you didn’t spend with your kids playing and talking. If you seriously can’t find 30 minutes everyday for your children, then you need to check your work/life imbalance.
Okay, I’m offline for 30 minutes 
I've been blogging for four years and write about anything and everything that takes my fancy.
Above is me with my beloved Ernie in Port Aventura and left with our love child in Florida.
Themocracy
Ah but be careful – it’s so adictive you suddenly find yourself home educating your 6 yaer old because you would miss all the play time if they went to school
Actually, i think those 30 minutes should be the most precious and cherished minutes of every day. I’d also suggest adding in 30 minutes to do chores WITH your child. Sorting washing and putting it away goes so much easier when you are being “helped” just so long as you aren’t in a rush to get it done!
30 minutes of time well spent!
This is something I should do more often.
They’re generally so happy playing with each other, by themselves, or with visiting friends that I get lazy about playing with them.
And there’s only so much lego I can take.
YES! This is so true. And it’s so easy to get too busy to take those 30 minutes. Thanks for the excellent reminder…
So true! It’s so hard for me to do that sometimes, but now I am going to make the extra effort. I might have to actually unplug the laptop and hide it from myself to make it happen!
I know I have been guilty of not putting in the 30 minutes, or as beta mum says letting her play on her own while I get organised, that’s why I was inspired to write this.
With my job finished now, I managed to spend time with her this morning drawing, and it was amazing fun
This is such a good idea.
I often feel guilty that I’ve not given Miss M or Miss E enough time.
30 minutes isn’t alot to ask for is it.
I’m going to do it.
I like the 30 mins chores idea too Karen, Miss M aged two loves helping me to empty and fill the tumble drier and also loves sweeping up.
We just make it a game.
Eeee I’m just like Mary Poppins, hee hee.
All together now……….A…….spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!!!
Playing with The Bean helps me be (terrible phrase) in the moment. We stood and looked at the river this evening after nursery. Not talking or doing anything, just being. It was without doubt the best part of my day.
Thanks v much for this post. It’s the boot up the backside, I needed today.
Great post. We should all make a point to spend time playing with our kids. 30 minutes a day isn’t that much, but it can mean a world of difference to our children. I take a 30 minute walk every morning with my sons. It’s our special time to talk, share, and just be together.
Yup, we all need that boot sometimes!
Well done MaL for being ‘in the moment’, we spent our 30 minutes drawing, well actually we spent 5 minutes drawing and 25 minutes putting the pencils in the tub, tipping them out, and repeating….lots of fun, you should try it
We did this on Friday when it was too wet to go out and had a great time playing together. I wished I’d made more of an effort before. We repeated it again this evening and again we had a great time – and it wasn’t even raining. Now I plan to have some quality time with IJ every day is possible when it is just the two of us and no distractions.
I’ve spent half an hour reading to my kids at night before they go to bed, faithfully, and they have wonderful reading habits.
It does sound like lots of fun to get to play with them, a little game or a make up a story with their toy. Wonderful idea.
I spend almost all day with my son. It’s getting his father to spend at least 30 min. with him that I’m having problems with.
Alex enjoys doing the bedtime routine, so I leave them to it
Yep needed that lil bit of encouragement. I get so busy with grad school, working fulltime, trying to keep the house clean, laundry done, etc that I forget they need me to just be a “fun” mommy sometimes. Seems like I’ve been so worried about everything else its always been “pick up this” “don’t do that” ” in a minute after I finish dishes, laundry, etc”.
Anyways I”m run ragged at the time being & hubby about to deploy again & I needed the reminder that the laundry will always be there but my lil kiddos will be all grown up
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