Welcome to Mom Motivation Mondays where weekly contributing writers share their motherhood experiences to encourage you to find the joy in being a mom.
{This week: Post by Jenn Gigowski}
“Mama, this is great. Just you and me. Nobody else. I like it.”
Jace, my newly turned six-year-old, looked at me over his ketchup-covered plate. He was wearing his Steak-n-Shake hat and sporting a bit of ketchup on his face. We were out for his birthday dinner. Just the two of us, since we couldn’t afford to take the whole family out. We’d been having a nice discussion over coloring and sticker-playing and stopped talking for a bit to eat our meals. It had been a few minutes of yummy silence between us when he surprised me with that gem. It was precious, and I’m so thankful for how it blessed our parent child relationship.
Do you ever just spend one-on-one time with your children? If you have more than one child, it’s often difficult to get away with just one. My husband and I each try to schedule one-on-one time with each child whenever possible. For us, it usually involves going out of the house for free or cheap, but staying home and hanging out, just two of you, is great for fostering the parent child relationship too. I am sharing a BIG list with you to get the ideas flowing-over 55 activities for kids to do with you to strengthen your parent child relationship.
One of the best things about spending time with your child doing things he enjoys is being able to have open dialogue about everything. When it’s just the pair of you, all your attention is on your child and all of his focus is on you. These are precious moments to get to know the personality and ideas and dreams and opinions inside your little one. It’s also time for him to see how much you care about him, and to notice that you’re actually someone worthy of listening to.
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
Activities that Strengthen the Parent Child Relationship
(Note: Most of these will work for any combo – Mother-son, Mother-daughter, Father-son, Father-daughter, but some of them are more obviously slanted one way or the other. You know your child and what he or she will like best.)
Quick tip: Most of these would even be good for a Hubby-Wife date night, and would also work as a whole family fun date!
Go to a dance – dress up fancy, pick up like going on a date
Go to a worship service
Volunteer at
- a mission
- Habitat for Humanity
- soup kitchen
Go out to Eat
- a place where kids eat free
- a picnic
- an ice cream shop
- a fine dining meal – dress up fancy, pick up like going on a date
Go to the Store
- to do regular grocery shopping or errands
- to go window shopping
- to pick out something special
- to a used bookstore or a thrift store
Have fun together
- batting cages
- miniature golf
- Chess, Checkers, Monopoly, Battleship, Pictionary, Charades, Mad-libs
- Truth or Dare
- Hide & Seek (admittedly, not as much talking time here!)
- bowling
- pool
- tennis
- ping-pong
- skee-ball
- air hockey
- foosball
- frisbee
- go-karts
- zip-line
- arcade games
Make a meal together
- pizza
- taco night
- his/her favorite meal
- themed meal – 50s diner, authentic French, Italian, Polish or other cuisine
Wash the car together
Go to a bounce house
Go to a farmer’s market
Go to the local YMCA and find something to do together
Ride bikes
Go to a circus, carnival, fair or festival
Discus and write down prayer requests
Go geocaching
Go rock climbing
Watch the sunrise
Watch the sunset
Look at stars
Find constellations
Camp out in the back yard (or camp-in if the weather is bad)
Go backpacking
Read the Bible and discuss it
Go roller skating, roller blading, ice skating or skiing
Visit an art gallery, museum, zoo, aquarium or planetarium
Go to the apple orchard
Wash the dog
Rake the leaves
Design and build LEGO creations
Go out as twins with matching outfits, hairdos and accessories
Go boating, canoeing, kayaking or tubing
Start a new hobby
- knitting
- crocheting
- sewing
- models
- jewelry-making
- painting
Visit a farm
Go fishing
Go horseback riding
Go on a scavenger hunt
Go to a pottery painting place
Go on a walk or a jog
Fly a kite
Build a sand castle or snow fort
Go swimming
Start an art project
Go to a family-friendly Karaoke place
Work on a crossword puzzle
Go hiking
Go to an entertaining event
- concert
- truck rally
- ball-game
- musical
- play
- family-friendly comedy club
Read a book – take turns reading chapters aloud
Write a story
Work on a puzzle
Take a class together
- dance lessons
- music lessons
- art lessons
- foreign language lessons
I hope these ideas can spark an interest in you and that you and your child will have a great time getting to know each other better. Make it a regular event and try new things!
Thank you so much for the gift that my children are to me. You have blessed me so much with them, and I treasure each of them so much. You are a great, good God. Help us to not take for granted these precious children who will only be little for a short time. Just 18 summers are given to us at the beginning of their lives. That’s not long. Please help us to make the most of our time with them while they are in our homes, so that when they are grown, they will still want to have a relationship with us.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
God bless,
Jenn
Jenn Gigowski is a Christian wife to an amazing man and a stay-at-homeschooling mom to four special & incredible boys (11.5, 10, 8, 6). Busy Being Blessed, by both Jenn and her husband Jerry, is to show families of the grace of God in everyday lives. She loves writing authentic posts so that others can know that perfection isn’t reality! Posts vary from general Christian living, parenting special needs children, gluten free living, homeschooling, and more! Follow them on Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter. Jenn also loves making digital creations and giving them to newsletter subscribers! 🙂
What are your favorite ways to spend one-on-one time with your child?
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Enjoy your time at home!
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