As a stay at home mom, I am immersed in my kids lives from the moment they wake up until the moment their heads hit the pillow again. My husband works 12 hour days on top of a 2 hour round-trip commute. So it is hard for him to get the kind of bond with our kids that I have. But being the multi-tasker that he is, he makes it work. He uses the time that he does have with them to the fullest extent. I know that there are a lot of families like ours whose dad(or mom) struggles to find time in the week to spend with their kids. Here are some great ways to enhance the the bond between kids and an overworked parent.
Take The Day Off When my husband has the day off I am always tempted to load him up with chores that need to get done around the house. But I find when I resist that urge and instead let him take the day off from the daily house stuff that he is able to get out and really bond with our boys. That is not to say that my husband always gets out of the household chores. A few times a month we also do family chore day. This is just as much of a bonding experience as our boys carry daddy’s tools around and assist him in whatever he is doing.
Become Buddies Everyone needs some unstructured free time to relax. In his free time my husband enjoys golfing. This has been a tremendous bond builder with my husband and our oldest son. Instead of hitting the links with his golf buddies, my husband has started taking our 5 year old, Aiden, out with him. Aiden helps drive the cart, retrieves tees and spare balls out of Daddy’s bag and even works on his own game a little. They both come home grinning ear to ear with stories to tell. Another activity that has been great for the two of them is going to the movies. Our youngest son is only 2 and taking him to the movie theater is a always a challenge. Our solution has been for my husband and Aiden to go on their own. It works out well because they almost have the same interests in movies(my husband is a kid at heart) and they end up with inside jokes from the movie they watched together.
Say Goodnight A routine that goes well with a traditional work schedule is to have the working parent take over a night time duty such as bath time or stories and bedtime. This may not sound too appealing to the working parent at first. My husband immediately thought it was just more work on top of his full day at the office. But he soon came to realize that these times with the kids were not as much work as he had thought. They are actually some of the more enjoyable parts of parenthood. He has taken over storytime and listens as our 2 year old tries to read along with him or points out the colors on the page and our five year old asks questions about the characters. Bedtime is easier now, so sometimes he will handle that on his own too. But when they were younger and many nights now I will take over after the stories are read. It is just enough time for the kids to interact with him daily and get to know him as a structured part of their daily lives.
(Photo By: Pipitdapo)
