You don’t have to explain to me how busy you are! I am just like you. Modern motherhood is a lot! Most of us have way too much to do and deeply yearn for more connection time with our kids. We feel like we must choose between getting things done and spending time with our kids. But we don’t always have to choose between the two. Below describes 7 ways to have both.
7 Ways To Have Both:
- Create A Morning Routine: Routines aren’t just good for your children. They are also good for YOU! Build a routine that works for all of you. If you can’t live without your morning cup of coffee, teach them how to make a morning cup of tea. Sip your coffee and tea together and say some morning affirmations. Link to my blog post about morning affirmations here. Next, get dressed, brush your teeth and do your hair. Then, eat a good breakfast together. Practice setting an intention for the day before you walk out the door. Model it for them, and then help them set one too!
- Let Kids Help You Cook: Making cookies, cupcakes and popsicles with your kids is one thing; but what about packing school lunches, making dinner or cooking breakfast together? These are things you must do anyway, so why not involve your kids? Remember you are teaching them very important life skills by involving them in your day-to-day work. For example, my son loves to chop! I bought him a child safe knife from Small Hands. While I am stirring the frying pan or boiling a pot of water, my son is often chopping the ingredients to add! For breakfast, I love to give him things to spread. We make bagels with cream cheese, toast with peanut butter, pancakes with butter and honey. I use small cheese spreading knives and let him have at it. For lunch, we use bento boxes and a finger food combination of meat, fruit, carb and veggie. I like to use the brand Yumbox to pack his lunches in. I may have all the different foods ready, but he likes to choose what section of the bento box each piece goes into. Voila, he packed it himself!
- Involve Kids In Your Problem Solving: Having a bad hair day? Struggling to keep the house clean? Needing some adult time? It is totally ok to tell your kids about real life things you are experiencing. In fact, you modeling how to handle real life things is a great learning experience for them. When I was having trouble keeping up with all the housework, I involved my child in coming up with a solution. We talked about all the things that need to get done to make a household function, the best days and times to do them and barriers that keep us from them. As a result, we decided we needed a visual chore board to help keep us on track! We did some searching together for boards we liked. We now have a couple of chore boards that we both picked out on Etsy and use daily!
- Vision Board Together: This is a great way to bond with your kid! It is also a surefire way to speed up manifesting the things you want in your life. You can read my blog all about vision boarding with your children here.
- Pray Together: Develop this beautiful habit together and pray out loud together. This is something sweet and simple you can do with your child daily. Not only are you teaching your child the invaluable skill of prayer, but you also get an extra benefit! If you teach them to give thanks to God, as well as ask Him for the help they need, it doubles as a way to hear the ends and outs of what is going on in your child’s life. You get to hear what things they are struggling with and things they are really enjoying. You now have another way you can provide help and guidance to them.
- Exercise Together: This is one of my favorites. We have a little neighborhood gym that lets me take my son. If that doesn’t work for you, you can build a little in-home gym or workout outside. The point is simply to find ways to involve your kids in exercise with you. I love doing sit-ups with my son. He can always do more than me. This makes him proud and me cry/laugh. I also bought him a little two lb. weight set. He uses those right alongside me when I am lifting weights. Also, I find dancing aerobic videos are something we can enjoy together!
- Garden Together: This is something my son and I love to do together. It gets me outside, he learns how to take care of plants, pull weeds and find bugs. We both learn how to grow food and use it to cook together. Gardening together has also been a great segway for me to teach him about the health benefits of food.
Remember
These are suggestions. They are not meant to overwhelm you. Pick one or two that work for you and leave the rest alone!