Family Briefs

Every parent struggles with getting in that quality one-on-one time with each of our children - feeling guilty if we fail, especially if the child’s behavior is reflective of what we perceive is our neglect of them.

I keep stumbling across articles about the difficulty of making this quality time happen in parenting magazines and on the web.

I think we’re making it harder than it has to be. There are LOTS of ways to spend one-on-one time with your child(ren). It doesn’t have to be a date night or a special trip to the toy store (God forbid).

I go with my 7-year-old to the library; he picks out books for him and I pick out books for my 3 and 5-year-olds (o.k., they are really children’s books that I’d like to read ).

My 3-year-old helps me pull weeds in the garden and trims the vine that tries to take over our house (but it smells too sweet when it blooms, so we are forgiving of it’s vicious attempts).

My 5-year-old and I vacuum the house together, even though our vacuum cleaner is essentially dead. I think the kids’ red battery-powered vacuum cleaner is actually more effective. So I’m REALLY hoping to win one of those FREE Dysons!

We clean the bathrooms together. I wonder how much longer they’ll fight over the toilet-cleaning job?

We wash the minivan together, and I try not to get angry when sprayed with cold water for the 86th time.

We READ! We don’t just read to get through a book; we discuss the story - what part might be real? what part do we WISH could really happen? what would we do if that happened to us?

Granted, some of this is one-on-one time. Some of it is three- or four-on-one time. But it’s all quality time. I’m learning about my children and spending time doing things with them. They are learning about things that are fun to do, and things that need to be done to make the household work.

And you know? There’s a lot less fighting that goes on whenever we do something together - even if it is cleaning the bathroom (as long as we flip a coin to figure out who cleans the toilet).

How do you spend quality time with your kids?

For more great tips, head over to Rocks In My Dryer every Wednesday!