Spending Quality time with kids

Sometimes, I don't understand if weekdays are more hectic or weekends. Every Monday after coming to office I keep wondering how these two days passed away without much of any utilization. Mostly my weekends are meant to be doing all the pending house hold works. I do have a full-time maid to support me for my daily chores but that still requires supervision. I usually buy vegetables weekly, so some of my time goes in buying veggies. I have to make sure all groceries are in place. Weekdays I don't cook meals, so I make sure that I cook meals on weekends this ensures that I have not lost touch of cooking, I am able to feed my son meals that are cooked by me. Though I have a maid for cleaning house and doing laundry, there is lot of cleaning which is not done by the maid and I have to take care of it, such as cleaning wardrobes, kitchen trolleys.

As a working mom, I stay away from home on weekdays for around 12-15 hrs. Hence, I have very little time to spend with my son on weekdays. So I think I will catch up with him on weekends but I have noticed that I am not able to give him much time on weekends as I may not have any office work but the house work is pending and I need to do complete all that work before Monday arrives. So technically working mommies don't have any holidays as weekdays we have office and weekend home is also like an office where house hold works needs to be completed. After some of the interactions with my son, I felt I am not spending quality time with him. By quality time, I don't mean watching TV together and being together at home. It means you both should connect with each other and have each others undivided attention.

Spending quality time together doesn't mean that you have to arrange for expensive dine outs or take vacations to Disneyland. It can be as simple as cooking together, having long strolls in parks. Doing things that you both like. One more important point is to listen. You have to listen what your child has to say. He may tell you about his day, or a story which is just babbling and doesn't have any logic in it. Listen what your child has to say, it will give him confidence that though my mom is not with me, she is always there when I have to say something and I can easily connect with her. Even if you get a call when you are in office and your child feels that he wants to talk with you, let him call you and speak with him for sometime.

Other option is you can plan a dine out. I usually don't like this option as I like to cook myself instead of planning a dine out at McDonalds. But occasional trips to restaurants are not bad and it will give your child an exposure to public places. If you are planning to cook delicious meals at home instead of taking kids out for dinner, setup a restaurant like experience in home. Use special dishes for serving, create a good ambiance and ask you child what he wants to eat and take his views for setting up the ambiance. You also need to identify what is it that your child is interested in and accordingly plan a quality time event with him. I will list out few quality time activities for reference but bear in mind you have to chose an activity on your child's interest.

1)Road Trips

2)Plan a dine out

3)Go to Parks

4)Play games

5)Listen to their stories

As weekend arrives, make sure you keep some time aside for this quality time activity. For two days you have to plan something that only you and your child are going to do for that time. This might mean that you have to postpone few errands. Try doing things together but make a slot for quality time a part of you weekend schedule.

Happy Parenting!!!