Being a parent isn’t an easy job.
There are so many aspects of Parenting. And you have to take good care of each aspect.
One really important part of parenting is strong communication between children and parents.
But how do we make our communication stronger?
The answer to this is to be more engaged with your children.
You have to be involved with your children in different ways to have strong communication with them.
Otherwise, uninvolved parenting would be the result which has its own set of demerits for the family.
Now the question is, as parents how exactly can you be more engaged with your children?
Here are 8 ways to be more engaged with your child.
Initiate more conversations
The simplest way to keep your child engaged with you is to have conversations with them.
Talk to them more often.
Talking to your child helps reduce stress people and allows your child to feel more comfortable around you.
You can start a conversation during dinner. Simply asking questions like:
- How was your day at school today?
- Who is your best friend and why?
- What is something you’re good at?
Participate with your child activities
Being a parent, it’s clear that you should be spending time with your kids.
But if you haven’t been able to do it, start by being involving your kids in activities.
For example, if your child is practicing for an upcoming football game, you can accompany him in his practice.
These activities work as a bridge between you and your child to be more interactive.
Thus you should be thoughtful about participation and involvement with your children in these kinds of practices.
Give your child surprises
Surprising your child is always a great idea.
It brings a sudden moment of joy for them without them expecting anything.
When we talk about surprises you don’t have to buy expensive toys for your child to be happy.
Just bringing some sweets home randomly. Or taking out time for them from your busy schedule would be a big surprise.
This clearly shows your child that you care and love to see the happiness on their faces.
Thus it brings them closer to you.
Praise your child more often
Children love to be praised.
And even you as a parent would have noticed it.
If you praise your kids on one of his actions he tends to repeat it because he wants you to praise him again.
Praising a child builds up his confidence and self-esteem massively.
It’s also a great way of pushing your children to put more effort into something and thus eliminating the part where they ‘quit’.
You praising your children would attract them towards you and moreover they’d feel more comfortable being around you.
Be a problem solver
As a parent, there comes as a core responsibility to help your children solve their life problems until they reach an age when they can make their own decisions.
At a young age, children look up to their parents in case of any problem or difficulty.
Now if you can assure them that no matter how bad of a situation it is, you will always be on their side.
Support from the family brings the utmost mental satisfaction to the children.
This way your children would be more confident to ask you for help and would be more engaged with you.
Give your child the attention they deserve
Children are thirsty for attention.
They would do weird stuff just to grab your attention as it matters a lot to them.
Make sure you when spending any time with them; give them full attention of yours.
For example, if your child comes back from school and has an exciting story to share with you, don’t be on your laptop nodding your head pretending that you’re listening.
You should pay attention to your child for that specific time. This would make your child feel more valuable in your eyes.
Have some fun
Fun kills discomfort.
By you being the parent, you have a wall of respect that your children can’t and shouldn’t ever cross.
But sometimes that wall moves a step forward and eliminates comfort in your children that they used to feel around you.
So it’s your job to make sure that your children are in consolation with you and feel free around you.
Otherwise, your children would eventually lose touch with you and it would create a communication gap between you.
Which would become the root of many other problems.
Avoid being strict unnecessarily
Keeping an eye on your child and being a little tough may be needed in some situations.
But here we are talking about parents who would be strict to their kids just because that’s how they think a parent should be.
Being a parent you don’t have to abide by all the formalities to get closer to your child.
In fact over punishing your child would lead to them being hesitant towards you.
And hesitation works like a big communication barrier for kids of a young age limiting their engagement with their parents.
Conclusion
Wrapping it all up we can say that raising engaged kids takes a lot of effort for parents.
Kids at such a young age don’t know the merits of being connected with their parents and the consequences otherwise. Thus the whole burden of this task comes onto the parents.
What parents need to understand here is that doing this is molding the views of your children about you and it might take some time for him to interact more with you or to show engagement.
Your aim as a parent for this should be to pour in a good amount of effort with an optimistic mindset.
