Invest Time With Your Kids

As a wise parent once said, "You never spend time with your kids; you invest it."

Studies reveal that average time parents spend with their kids has drastically declined 10 to 12 hours.  "Does it really matter how much amount of time I spend with my children?", you would probably ask. After all, your teens probably doesn't want you to be always nosing around in their daily activities. And there is no need for a 24/7 "security guard" or "body guard" anymore the moment they reached their teenage years.  So what's the big deal?

As you raise your children, like everyone else, they need your love.  And the amount of time you invest with your kids reveal that they're receiving love from you.

Investing time with your children means that your are using one of your scarcest resources.  And I believe that it is worth investing your time with with your kids for a fact that you're building a lifetime relationship, and there will be no regret for doing so.  You are in fact, adding value to the lives of your kids.  "Spending" time with your kids might not be more enticing, but if you see it as an "investment", you and your teen will find more joy rather than out of obligation in your life.

And you'll be glad you did the right thing.  Enjoy your time with your kids.

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Do you want a fish or do you want to know how to fish?

Where do I go from here?

Suppose you are on a deserted island, practically starving to death.  You have just about given up all hope when, finally, a man brings you a fish to eat.  The next day you are hungry again, so the man has to give you another fish.  You become dependent on someone else for your food.

That is the way so many Christians are today.  They depend on others to feed them spiritually.  Many teachers will present to you baked fish, fried fish, broiled fish, fish salad, and everything else, but they may never teach you how to fish for yourself.

If you have already been taught how to FISH for yourself,  You won’t have to be dependent on and wait for others to spoon-feed you.  You will still need to learn from those with more experience, but you can begin to feed yourself.

“. . . from everyone who has been give much shall MUCH be required. . .”

Luke 12:48, NAS

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The Closer, The More Painful

The closer we get with our relationship with our children can also be more painful to us not just physically but also emotionally.

I would say physical pain, for instance, there was a time when we were playing "tickles" with our children we cannot avoid the physical contact that will cause us harm sometimes when we "overplayed".

Many times also when the children would try to be loving towards us like they want to sit on the lap or straddle on the back or above my shoulders, of course, you would know what I mean if you already experienced those happy moments with your kids.

We oftentimes get too attached with our children that we thought and wish they stay as cute as they are, but life in reality is not like that.  They really have to grow physically and emotionally.  Time will come they will have their own career, their own family, their own life to live.

Although it will hurt us physically and emotionally if we get closer with our children, still it is the best thing to do: to develop deeper relationship with them, to become their "best friend" in life so that whatever questions they have in life, though we don't have all the answers, they are confident to approach us that we could guide them in the right track of making good decisions, if not the best decisions they will ever have to make.

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Playtime with your kids is very healthy

Supervised Neighborhood Play (SNP) is one of the strategies a parent can employ not only to spend quality time with your kids but at the same time it is a form of a healthy exercise for your kids.

Playtime with your kids is indeed very healthy, both physically and socially when it comes to your relationship with your children.

There are many thing we could do as parents during playtime with our kids, we just need to be creative. Just recently we played a simple tag game in our front yard. Other things that we could do during our playtime with our kids is to play hide and seek, badminton, baseball or even a simple catch game would do during our playtime.

During the said playtime outside, we are really exercising our physical body thus it has a good effect for us. Well, just a caution though, that we should be careful not to hurt ourselves or our kids. Safety is always our best concern.

As I mentioned, this could also be in effect help our relationship with our kids grow and at the same time by getting to know them better, we are also teaching them values like courage, self-confidence, sportsmanship and fair play.

So, why not use your playtime with your kids to benefit both physically and socially.

Have fun playing with your kids!

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One of the best gifts you can give to your kids is your time

A Solid Investment for your child is Your Time!

Almost every parents is faced with questions from their children that needs answers, from simple questions to complex ones.  Although many times we are so engrossed with our daily activities and responsibilities that we sometimes take for granted the time we should have with our children.

Spending time with your children can be sometimes annoying but in the long run we can consider it the best investments we could have for them.  You are giving a great head start for your child if you always take time to answer his or her questions and at the same time strengthen your bonding relationship.

A child's simple questions about the things in his or her surroundings must be answered relative to his age and interest span.  We could also use this opportunity to motivate them towards good habits that we want them to form.

You are capitalizing on spiritual truths as you take time to answer a child's questions and he or she will really learn the value of appreciation you have shown him or her.

And finally, as we spend time with our children at play we teach them sportsmanship and other good values as we play with them.  Family recreation is a great activity, spending time together whether indoors or outdoors.

Teaching values to our children: always goes around by the examples that we set, by our attitudes, and by our words.

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