How to Connect With Your Kids

How to Connect With Your Kids

As a parent, you’re always looking for more ways to develop your relationship with your child. After all, a healthy relationship is crucial to all aspects of your child’s development. Here are seven ways to grow your parent-child bond. We hope that this How to Connect With Your Kids post inspires you. 

How to Connect With Your Kids

Eat Meals as a Family

A fantastic method to develop your relationship with your children is routinely eating meals together. When families dine together, they can slow down and catch up on the events of everyone’s day. Hearing from each family member helps you learn more about each person and invest in one another's lives deepening familial bonds. Research also suggests families who regularly eat together experience better mental health and fewer symptoms of depression. One study even found the higher the rate of family dinners, the less likely teens were to get involved in drug use. 

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Express Your Love

One of the simplest ways to nurture a healthy relationship with your child is by regularly telling them of your love. To create a secure attachment and grow a healthy relationship, it’s crucial to tell your child you love them every day. Demonstrating your love regardless of your child’s behavior is vital as they grow into a young adult. You can begin developing a healthy attachment as early as infancy through simple bonding acts such as skin-to-skin contact, rocking and soothing your child, and responding to their basic needs.

While your baby may not understand the words “I love you,” by expressing your love through action, your child will learn to trust you and quickly understand their parent will meet their needs. Mutual love and a healthy relationship will grow from this foundation.

Give Your Children Attention

It’s crucial to set boundaries in your life between work and home so you can give your child quality attention. Regardless of what your child wishes to do, ensure you’re giving your entire focus. Put away your laptop or phone, make eye contact, and have a conversation. Ask your child what they'd like to do and go out and do it. If you have more than one child, plan one-on-one time with each child to maintain your relationships. Try different outings or playdates on days of the week. You can also connect at home by doing various activities. The key is to be with your child, express your love, and show you care.

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Let Your Child Lead

When playing with your child, let them be the guide. Child-led play is a fantastic way to develop and strengthen your relationship with your children. All you need to do to implement child-led play is watch your child play and then appropriately respond. You'll also want to ask if you can join them in their activity. Ensure you affirm however your child plays with the toy or game. Let your child make up the rules. If they wish to switch to another activity, allow them to do so and continue playing with them.

Support Your Child

While spending time with your child, consider what’s going on in their life to provide a better context to meet their needs. Consider what their behavior is communicating and reaching out to support them. If they're inside rather than joining their siblings in the backyard, maybe they're feeling sad. Or perhaps they'd like extra attention from you. Respond to this behavior by inviting your child to join you in helping prepare dinner.

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Validate Their Feelings

Another vital way to support a healthy relationship with your children is by validating their feelings. Work to validate your children's feelings through these steps: Communicate you’ll do your best to listen without judgment or blame. Do your best to empathize with your children, be sensitive to their situation, and remember how embarrassing the tween and teen years were. Recognize your children’s problems matter. Try not to minimize their problems, even to make your children feel better.  Acknowledge how upset your children must feel and how their emotions must feel like they're spinning out of control.

As a parent, it's essential to understand how your role can contribute to feelings of shame in your children. If you neglect to validate your child's feelings, they could continue with negative behaviors.

Establish Trust in Your Relationship

A great way to build a healthy relationship is by establishing trust. Trust in relationships goes both ways. Likely your child trusts you to feed, clothe, and equip them for everyday activities. If you’re hoping to develop trust in your child, do so by giving them responsibilities around the house. Start with minor roles like cleaning up their toys after making a mess, emptying the little trash cans, or choosing an outfit to wear every day. As your child grows, you can trust them to feed the dog, and help you cook and fold their laundry. 

It's important never to expect perfection for your child's chores. Remind your child they can always ask for help with a task if they need it. Household responsibilities are crucial to developing healthy relationships because they teach social accountability early.

Support Positive Relationships with Your Children

A healthy relationship is beneficial for all areas of your child’s development. Support your child by boosting your relationship in these seven actionable ways. We hope that this How to Connect With Your Kids post inspires you. 

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