Of late... I have been thinking about this; the amount of time hubby and I spend with Reese. How much of it is actually quality time? There is a big difference between quality time and quantity time. Quality time translates into comunicating and bonding with your child. I am happy that 90% of the time we actually spent quality time with him. :)
I know of parents who considered watching TV passively with their kids or watching the kids play without participating as quality time spent with them. Mmmm... sad to say...alot of parents think the same. There are many ambitious parents out there busy making money and who think that money can be the key to their children's success.... hai....
As a working parent, I understand the stress and pressure and time constraint we face all the time because of it...we have many excuses to justify why we do not have time to spend with our children.
To me, unless you don't have enough to eat and take care of basic necessities, maybe working a little less and spending a little bit more time with your child is the best decision to make. Oh...and it shouldn't be one sided..meaning both parents should be doing it together whenever possible or at least there should be a balance. Our children is our investment. It's not so much of monetery investment but emotionally, spritually as well as physically. Darn... hope you understand what I am saying...haha...
We have to spontaneous with our life!!
6 comments:
it's true....quality time is more important than the number of hours we are with them!
I didn't get it at first coz ALL of the time I am with my son, I spend singing and crawling and talking to him.
Can't imagine tired parents who sit passively with their children only. but then sometimes cannot really help it. we need 2 incomes now a days and if we work in KL from 9-6...what becomes of us?
For a mom who is at home with them all the time, I also feel guilty if I am just sitting passively (if ever able to escape their demands). I feel like I'm rally wasting time.
So what I do is I try to be involve in their play, or try to initiate some play - if the want to (at this stage they will tell you what they want to do!) Sometimes we watch TV together too and they'll ask questions or I'll point out interesting things to them. It's a bonding thing too, esp. when they want you to sing a certain theme song etc, while in the car. It's quite fun.
We also play this guess-the-show-from-the-song game: Mummy hums the tune and the boys try to guess the show. Max actually managed to get a few before his big bro!
True..money will never be enough...
we make it a point to have some family games every night (be it 5mins or 1/2hour) Its great for bonding.
You can spend quality time when you're busy too. I usually prefer to do my work without the kids help because it gets done faster that way but they just love to help so sometimes I let them. For example, yesterday, I put a chair with a cushion in front of the sink yesterday and asked my boy to help me wash vegetables. He loved it. After that I asked him to wash the plastic container. He filled it up with dishwashing liquid and it created lots of bubbles which he dipped his hand in making him laugh so hard. My vegetables took longer than usual to get done but I was happy to see him happy. After that he came to observe me wash his shoes and was happy again to see them turning white and clean "just like new" he said. This was, I get to spend time with him while doing work around the house instead of doing work and letting him watch tv on his own.
sometimes, i am gulity of just passing a day with my son with most of them being quantity time.
but most times, i tried to make them quality moments. like painting with him, watching tv with him, playing ball games with him, bringing him out to the park for a run....etc etc. even a simple meal with him can be quality time because we would talk during our meal...
Dear mummies,
I guess once in a while...we have to remind ourselves.... quality time is more important.. even if it's only 15 minutes of quality time..where the our children enjoy themselves...
We also need time to recharge everyday day. :)
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