Holy moly! So you got through the initial outbreak of the Pandemic. Now you’re working your way through the unstructured summer months. And it’s looking like the fall won’t be offering much relief, with most schools reopening on a part-time/flex basis, if at all. One way to make the job of full-time parenting/entertaining/educating more manageable is to add a little structure to your days.
Relating to your child is probably the most irreplaceable job you have as a parent: you are, more than anyone else on Earth, who your children look to for affirmation and recognition of their self-worth. Ultimately, most of us “get” the need to spend time with our kids, but relating to kids at every age and stage isn’t always so easy. It helps to convert relating into tangible, measurable actions that allow you to connect with different aspects of your child’s developing personality and identity. When it comes down to it, relating can be broken down into four categories of activities, all of which provide a platform for connecting, bonding, and infusing your child with the unconditional message that they matter…
You may have heard that 90% of who we become as adults is the result of what happens in the first seven years of life. It would be a pretty cruel joke of nature, if the greatest impact we have as parents is when we are least experienced. Parenting is one of the most complex jobs in the world and it doesn’t come with any training or an extension number we can dial for “technical” support. We’re all just learning as we go. We’re bound to make mistakes. Luckily, recent science has found that while the early years do matter very much, the later years do too.
Whether you were organized or not before you had kids, arranging logistics for family life is different and more complex than organizing for a single person. Engaging every member of the household in arranging tasks, including kids from an early age, is a good thing. It promotes a sense of responsibility and belonging; imparts the value of caring for others in relationships; and teaches critical life skills that will benefit your children into adulthood. A simple conversation with your family may be just the thing you need to hit reset on your household’s division of labor.
