Parents offer the best and most important relationship to their children. A parent-child relationship is crucial to the growing child, for they receive assurance to approach life with confidence.
A child with a strong connection with their parents will always go back to them for guidance and approval on issues they face in life. We are in the social media era that offers various suggestions on life issues that could positively or negatively affect your child.
Children with a strong parent-child bond will thrive in all aspects of their lives. They are likely to build healthy relationships with people they meet. They can make the right decisions in life and solve problems they might encounter.
Activities to foster a parent-child bond
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Eating meals together
Parent-child bond takes place in every aspect of a child’s life. Eating meals together is one of the many opportunities to bond with your children. The family members need to identify a specific meal time with every member available.
As you eat together, the parents get an opportunity to instill life skills like table etiquette, healthy eating, among others. The children will also be free to talk about their day and seek help where they feel inadequate.
Mealtime conversation can take any direction since the main idea is to enjoy a meal together.
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Playing together
Children’s desire, especially the young ones, is to spend time playing. Playing with your children is an open avenue to bond. Join up in their activity; ask a question about what they are doing and if they need you to assist in any way.
Please take the opportunity also to enquire about their lives. They will gladly open up to you since their concern at the moment is to have fun. Playing with your child will also help in developing their language.
They get to listen to you, and they may repeat your phrases, especially the young ones learning how to talk. Let us remember play is very helpful in the holistic development of a child; they develop their imagination, creativity, and problem-solving skills, among many.
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“I love you” moments.
Children are aware of their parents’ love. It is better still to affirm this fact by telling them every day. It does not matter the age of your children; continue saying these three magical words “I love you.”
Despite their actions that could be contrary to the desired ones, let the children know that you love them though you do not agree with the negative behavior they portrayed. Children aware of their parents’ love will always be open to them. They look forward to confiding with their parents, which is a sure sign that the parent-child bond is growing.
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Cooking together
Cooking a meal with your child is another great activity that strengthens the parent-child bond. Allow your child to pick the recipe for the day. They will find a variety of simple recipes online. To start with, select a recipe with a few ingredients and steps to follow.
Allow your child to be creative. They could add their favorite toppings to a pizza or use different vegetables to make the meal colorful. While cooking together, you get the opportunity to instill life-long skills like tidying up, cutting vegetables, and of course, cooking. Make the kitchen moments fun and worth looking forward.
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Be available
Spending free time every day with your child and enjoying each other’s company is a good practice. Such moments are good for listening and understanding your child’s thoughts and feelings. It could be a ten minutes session every day.
Choose a comfortable place without distractions to concentrate on each other. Be a good listener, empathize with your child, and tackle issues in their level of understanding. You will find out that your child is free to open up to you, and they will grow knowing that you are always there for them.
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Make art and craft together.
Children like using their hands to try out things. You may use different items in your house for craft activities. Join your child in their craft. Start a conversation on the work at hand. Make your craft and pretend to need help from your child.
You will be building their confidence and self-esteem as they take the lead. You are also building their speech and vocabulary during this time of bonding.
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Storytime
Children will always create time for a story with their parents. Parents may use a variety of materials to come up with a story. The good thing about stories is the value, skill, or fact that the child carries home. You may allow your child to buy picture/story books every fortnight or, better still, enroll in a nearby library for variety.
During story time, your child will improve on various skills like patience, listening, taking a turn, and communication. Do not forget to give your child a chance to retell the story and extract lessons from it.
Allow them to make up a story and tell it to you. By doing so, you are developing critical thinking and self-confidence.
Benefits of the parent-child bond
Development of healthy brain
Children start learning by observing their parent’s facial expressions after birth. The newborns enjoy staring at their parents as they smile and talk to them. With this kind of love and care, parents and caregivers promote brain development in children.
It is believed that a child’s brain has developed to 90% by the age of three. Such understanding calls parents to keep engaging and interacting with their children to provoke brain development as a whole.
Promoting problem-solving skills
As children interact with their parents, they observe and learn how they work out difficult situations. Parents and caregivers need to model good values through their actions.
Talking to children about how you handled issues the way you did would go a long way in clearing the child’s doubts. Playing games and participating in thought-provoking activities are some ways of helping your children grow problem-solving skills.
To Nurture holistic development.
A child with a strong bond with their parents is assured of holistic development. Such a child is free to ask any question since they enjoy a concrete relationship with their parents. Teaching children to be open with their emotions guarantees them healthy relationships throughout their lives.
When children realize that they are loved, they grow up knowing that love is a good thing, and they are sure to reciprocate the same to others. Spending time with your child engaging in outdoor activities not only makes a child happy but promotes their physical growth.
Your child will come up with games and activities involving the whole family since they have been nurtured to be thinkers and problem solvers.
Conclusion
It is possible to build a strong and lasting parent-child relationship. Spending quality time with your child is the beginning point of the everlasting bond. There are various simple activities that you can do to help create a much-needed relationship with your child.
Start by sitting down with your child and enjoying having a conversation over anything that interests them. Ask them what game or activity they would like to carry out with you. Take the opportunity to instill values and skills in your child as you do the tasks.
Make the moments fun and enjoyable so that your child can look forward to such moments again. Your expressions, actions, and body language should encourage positive interaction. Make sure to discuss expectations for each of your children.
Put structures in place and let every one of them understand and follow them. Remember, the child’s world is in your hands, and you can propel them to greatness or failure by how you relate with them.