3 Reasons Spending Quality Time With Your Children Is Important
Once again, the half-term break is here with us.
For students, it is usually a time to relax, meet up with their friends, catch up on their favourite shows, go for their favourite recreational activities and lastly, binge eating junk food. On the other hand, most parents find half-term to be unnecessary in terms of time and money because of the fear of truancy.
But the real question is how do you spend quality time with your children?
Half term is meant to be a time for bonding, reflection and relaxation for families.
Coast Academy Student
However, most parents dread half-term breaks as it means them having to dig deeper into their pockets to finance the activities for the short break. For other parents, their main concern is the amount of unsupervised time that their children get during the half-term breaks, considering most parents are either full-time employees or have their own businesses to run, which translates to not enough time to keep an eye on the activities of their children.
Below is why you should spend more time with your child not just during half term, but all year round.
1. Cognitive development
The term cognition means the ability to use your conscious and subconscious parts of the brain to think, reason, remember and make decisions. Spending positive time with your children improves their Problem solving and decision-making skills.
2. Mental development
In this time and era, mental illness has become a global pandemic. Absent parenting is among the leading causes of mental health illness in school-going children. According to the Institute of Health Equity “lack of secure attachment, neglect, lack of quality stimulation, and conflict, negatively impact future social behaviour, educational outcomes, employment status and mental and physical health”.
Children’s exposure to neglect, direct physical and psychological abuse, and growing up in families with domestic violence was particularly damaging. This can all be restored through positive parenting, being there for your children, praising them, encouraging them and most importantly loving them. This in turn boosts their self-confidence and desire to succeed and make you proud.
3. Socio-cultural and spiritual development
The home being the first school, children learn the art of interaction through observing their parents. They tend to copy a lot from their parents and that is why a healthy and peaceful environment is needed at home, to build them up with good values and morals. Teach them to pray, to be thankful and liberal in such a way that they accept everyone regardless of their race, colour, religion, heritage or social status.
Considering that these are young developing minds, parents’ involvement in their children’s life is key to their growth . They should fully embrace the half term as it creates an opportunity for families to spend time together. Take it as an opportunity to understand your child’s wants and needs, listen to them, guide, support their goals and aspirations and also engage in activities that involve every member of the family such as board games.
Celebration of little wins and words of affirmation go a long way! As the old African proverb states, it takes a village to raise a child. Therefore if the parents and teachers work together, the society will become a better place.
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