Every relationship requires a lot of time and effort to make it work. As a parent, providing for your child’s needs is not enough to stay connected and forge a strong bond as they grow older. If you want to create a happy and healthy relationship with your child, here are a few rules that you can follow and incorporate into your life:
Make Time to Bond with Your Kids
A positive parent-child relationship is not built overnight. It would take years for you to truly get to know your child’s personality, experiences, thoughts, dreams, and interests. This can only be achieved if you spend more time with your child and become more present in their life.
Find time off of your busy schedule to bond with your family. For example, you can read one chapter of “Harry Potter” to them every night before they go to sleep or find boat rentals in Huntsville so you and your child can go on an adventure down a nearby river or lake on Sunday mornings. These one-on-one interactions will bring your child closer to you and create memories that you two will cherish forever.
Let Your Children Help You at Home
Parents miss out on opportunities to bond with their children by doing chores and tasks on their own. It is not always true that children do not want to help out. In fact, children feel more confident if they can be involved in activities with you and other adults.
You can start by taking your children grocery shopping. Aside from letting them pick their own snacks, let them assist in finding household necessities and lugging shopping bags back into the house. Making chores an activity that you and your child can do will make them more willing to help out around the house.
Respect Their Choices
Children, especially when they are growing older, will make choices that you may not approve of. It can be dressing themselves in mismatched clothes or painting their room in a dark color. If these choices are not harming them in any way, it will be beneficial for your relationship to respect them.
Let them become independent and find their style and interests on their own. This will develop their decision-making skills early on and make them feel that you respect their autonomy. By saying “yes” or, sometimes, looking the other way, you will encourage them to talk to you and share their hobbies.
Be Generous with Hugs
Let your children grow up comfortable in receiving affection. Give them a lot of hugs throughout the day when they wake up, before they go to school, when they come home from school, when they achieve something, when they are hurt, before they go to sleep — any opportunity that you can give a hug.
A hug not only communicates that you love them, but it also has a ton of benefits to the mind and body. It makes them happy by releasing oxytocin, a chemical in your brain associated with reduced stress. When your tween or teen started to rebuff your hugs, find other ways to create physical connections. Pat their back when they did a good job or tousle their hair to tease them. Make eye contact and smile, as well.
Pay attention to your children and let them know that you love them and that they are a priority in your life.
