Play with Them!

Nothing will make your child not want to be around you faster than you telling them you have no time to play. I know it is difficult when you have bills to pay, dinner to make, and countless other things. There are times Haylee will ask me to play with her and I have to tell her I cannot. It makes my heart sad to do that cause all I really want to do it play with her. I try not to say no very often. All it takes is 5 minutes to read her a book until she gets focused on something else, then I can go back to what I was doing. We get married at least once a week. Another thing Haylee and I do together is dance. We can be walking in a shopping mall and she will turn to me and ask me to dance. The embarrassment factor kicks in and all I want to do is say not right now. What I actually say is of course. When she is grown and on her own, I will remember those times of dancing with her in the middle of everything and know that I did my part in playing with her. When Sarah is at the age of wanting to do these things, I will do the same with her, whatever her “thing” is.

Praise your Children!

Praising children for a job well done can be foreign to some of us. When our children do something good, we first assume they did what they were supposed to and shouldn’t need praising. Now think about you in your own job. When you do something good at work, your boss or supervisor will hopefully say “Hey you did a great job on that” or “thank you for your hard work.” If you do not hear this after doing something, you might feel let down or under-appreciated. Now picture your son or daughter doing something to get your attention and you do not acknowledge them. This tells them that nothing will impress you so why bother trying to do well for you. If I am guilty of anything, it is over praising my girls because I want them to always know I am so proud of them and everything they do.