6 Meaningful Ways To Spend More Time With Your Kids

Between all the activities, scheduling, and stress, finding quality time together goes to the wayside. These 6 meaningful ways to spend more time with your kids brings back that connection and slower pace.

I find myself in a unique position among my mom friends. I have been both a full time working mom with young kids and a full time stay at home mom with young kids. 

From this double experience I can tell you that no mother is immune to the stress, pressure, to do lists, shoe-finding, schedule making, meal planning, and goal getting than the other.

We are all in this boat together.

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In tandem with this, there are times when we all want to hold our kids a little closer and find ways to spend meaningful time together. 

For me, these times happen when there is a big milestone (kindergarten, preschool, after a cranky day), when I am struck with how much I love these tiny humans, or when there is horrific news about schools.

This last one is especially triggering for me having been through a near school shooting and seeing the damage a shooting in a school parking lot can have on a school. 

Whatever your reason for wanting to have more time with your kids, these are the six ways I do it without adding more to my schedule or feeling overbearing. 

Have Meals Together 

There is so much research about the benefits of having meals together as a family. When schedules are tight, this gets harder to do. However, I really encourage you to make it a priority if not every day of the week, make it the majority. 

Within having a meal at the table together, I encourage you to sit through the entire meal. Typically when I am done eating, I get up to start cleaning dishes even if the kids are still eating. I am particularly bad about this during lunch. 

In times when I want more special moments and to spend more meaningful time with the kids, I focus on keeping myself in the chair while the kids finish their own plates. It helps foster some extra conversation and little bit of time to slow down and enjoy them without being “busy”.

At dinner, I love using these 12 Family Conversation Starters For Meaningful Daily Chats. The kids always have highlights from their day I didn’t know stuck out to them so much. 

You can get lots of meal ideas here. This muffin pan meal takes the kids quite some time to eat, but gives you lots of time to enjoy the time together.

Reading Without Rush 

We read a ton around here. Oftentimes, the kids want to read in the mornings before school drops and activities as well, but we are in a time crunch with only a few minutes before we leave. 

Rather than rushing off to non-essential activities in the mornings, I opt to stop, drop, and read. It makes for some cozy extra cuddles and starts the day with a connection that the kids were asking for. 

When our kids ask us to play with them or to read to them, it is often them asking for more time with us. They want to be with you in these meaningful ways just as much as you want to be with them.

The hard part for us as the parents is often slowing down our daily schedules and checklists to give our child the connection he needs in the way he needs.

Limited Multitasking 

The kids tell me stories while I am looking at the cutting board chopping for dinner. They ask me questions while I am running up the stairs with laundry. 

It seems as if I am always multitasking while they need a conversation. 

Instead of multitasking when the kids want to have a quick chat, tell a story, or ask me a question, I consciously stop what I am doing, look them in the eye, and show that I am fully listening. 

Let me tell you, it is almost painful for me to do this type of slowing down to give the kids my undivided attention, but it is so important to both of us. 

I want the kids to know that I am always available to listen, to chat, and to answer them. I don’t want them to feel like they are always chasing my back, never being seen, or not getting a real answer from me.

Engaged Play 

With all there is to do, I often get the kids started on a game together before starting to check items off my list. 

Rather than having them play without me more often than not, I challenge myself to really engage in their play with them. Even just five minutes of saying yes to whatever they want to play can have a profound effect on their own happiness. Just 20 minutes of engaged play with them makes me feel like I got some bonus quality time. 

These are some ideas to get started with that, or just follow the flow of their play. For instance, William, Hazel, and I played pirates at the playground a few weeks ago for over an hour. 

• 19 Simple Dramatic Play Ideas For Young Kids 
• 28 Movement Activities For Preschools and Their Parents
• 29 Beginner Craft Projects For Young Kids

If you like to use printables to engage in play with your kids, check out my other site, Move Play Go, where I create movement, exercise, and activity printables for families to get moving more together.

Longer Tuck Ins 

Rob and I love the divide and conquer approach when it comes to bedtime with three young kids. When I am searching for more meaningful ways to spend time with the kids, I like to give all three kids a proper, longer good night. 

Talking about the day, laying with them for more than five minutes, and just having the tiny warm body next to me is perfect for my heart and makes the kids feel just that much extra loved.

Unrushed Walks 

Since we are walkers for school, the afternoons usually involve a good deal of coercing the kids to pick up the pace so we can make it home in time to start dinner or get to an evening activity.

On the days I am craving that extra closeness, I let them take as much leisurely time as they want to walk home. Every rock, stick, and leaf that wants to be explored, is. 

I just love watching them discover and walk at their own rate. I love really diving into that exploration time with them and supporting their theory that this is the most amazing rock, stick, leaf, or squirrel I have ever seen.

These are the 6 things I do in times of sadness, fear, and craving connection with my kids. They are simple actions that take very little extra time and help me hold them a little bit closer. In times of worrying about the state of their world and their little futures, these meaningful ways. to spend more time with the kids mean everything to me.