Getting the most out of summer time with your kids before school starts back up
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- With summer slipping away, have you made the most of your time with your children before school gets rolling again?
KDKA's John Shumway is here with a report on maximizing the limited time we have with our kids.
This all started with a meme saying that by the time kids are 12 years old, adults have spent 75% of the time they will have with them.
There are a lot of differing views on that assessment, but there is a general agreement that the time with children is limited.
It's been the subject on songs and poems about how quickly children grow up.
In the early years, you're there for everything and it's a total immersion, but as the kids get a little bit older, the precious time really does become limited.
Amy McCready is a parenting coach and founder of Positive Parenting Solutions and she says that it's important to make sure the time you spend with them is going to foster that relationship and give kids the connection they have to have.
She's talking about meeting more than their basic daily needs. She recommends body and soul time.
"It is 10 minutes of one-on-one time where you are fully present in my body and soul," McCready said. "And so that means your phone is not around. Your spouse is not around. Other siblings aren't around during that 10 minutes. Your child has you completely to himself."
And the child should be in charge of how you spend that time.
McCready says that without that time, they will get more clingy and demanding.
"Kids are more cooperative," McCready said. "They're more easy going the up and down emotions are start to level out. And so parenting just becomes a lot easier. And it becomes a lot more fun, even if you have multiple kids."
If you do have multiple kids, each one needs that 10 minutes from an adult in their life. McCready calls that time magical because you're 'all-in' and are meeting your child's emotional need for the connection and it's good for you, too.
