Hi guys welcome back today I thought I'd share with you some of the things that I
do in order to reconnect with my kids and the idea for this video came about
because I've had a few days recently where I just not felt emotionally
connected with my kids and that usually happens when either have had a full day
with them and I've been so busy doing you know the general jobs changing nappies
cleaning, taking the bins out, cooking food and I feel like I've just
not spent enough time getting to know them playing with them and just
generally feeling emotionally connected to them and I feel like I can see the
effect that that lack of emotional connection has on them because they
suddenly become much harder than usual overly hyper overly emotionally
sensitive and craving that attention and emotional connection so there are a few
things that I do and I thought I would share with you in case you are needing
some ideas they don't take much of my time and if I can manage to do all of
them in a day I feel like I've had a much better day with the kids isn't it
hard to get information and things out of your kids especially older toddlers
and preschool age kids it's just it's such a weird thing because up to that
point I felt like it was constantly them coming to me and now it's constantly me
going to them to ask them for stuff then they just won't tell me so anyway I hope
these things kind of help you or give you some ideas of what to do I'd love
for you to share with me your ideas as well so please do leave them on the
comments below if you have some ideas on how to reconnect with your kids if
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subscribe if you're new around here so let's get straight into the video the
first thing that I find really helps me reconnect with my kids is to let them
teach me something especially with my older toddler I find that sometimes I
struggle to get his full attention when I'm asking him questions and he started
to get that whole selective attention thing where he only gives me gives me
his attention when he wants to but when I switch the focus to them and I let
them teach me something suddenly their interest is fully on me and I feel like
I can pay attention to them and they keep it pay attention to me in that way
we feel a lot more in sync and connected so find something that your child loves
doing and they know a lot about and ask them about it and just be generally
interested in their answers I have a dinosaur obsessed toddler so I go to him
and ask loads of facts about dinosaur and he feels so happy that he's teaching
me something new
when he's telling me things I ask him questions and show a lot of interest I
think the whole point about this reconnecting with your child is that you
have to be present with them in the moment the next thing we do is to build
something together and that could be anything from baking a cake together to
build in some Lego or even joining in the whole rock painting craze I don't
know if you've heard about it but there's this rock painting thing going
around where you paint some rocks and then you hide them other people find
them and it's just really good fun and we've taken to doing that with the kids
and it's so much fun even better because the weather is nice outside so we don't
have to have any mess in the house take everything out in the grass and the mess
is contained the kids get so dirty but then you can just hose them down and
clean them like that and it's a great bonding activity especially for toddlers
it helps with their fine motor skills it creativity lots of other things it's
something that you can do without distractions from technology and it
helps you and them create something together
I find that having that object that you created together is so special to them
so important my kids put a lot of valuing things that we do together and
create together and we like to keep like little mementos of things that we've
done together so the rock painting thing is a great example of how you can do an
activity and have an end product if you're struggling for ideas of what to
paint on a rock so if you just want to see what other people have done I'll
leave a link in the description box below to the channel my website where
you can check out the whole channel mum rocks there's so many people doing it
and there's so many great ideas there's also a competition
and so do check out the link below I'll also link below the supplies that we
bought from hobby craft just in case you're interested because I
didn't know what to buy I turned up at the store and I said to the guy I want
to paint some rocks what do I buy and then I said it has to be child safe as
well so yeah I'll leave below the link to the ones that I got because they have
been really really good another thing I do in order to bond with my kids is to
ask for their help children absolutely love feeling equal to us dumb babe my
kids love when I give them a little bit of responsibility and they just feel so
good about themselves and you can tell that they're thriving and having that
responsibility to do so I usually ask them to help me which is not a bad thing
with things like loading the laundry helping me serve the food on the plates
and they're just little things but it makes such a big difference I feel like
they're so focused when they're doing these tasks that I could ask them
anything and I would have their undivided attention it's a nice thing to
do together as well because it teaches them that everybody has to share the
jobs around the house and there's not just mummy that does everything and we
can help out and do things together as well next thing I do is to watch a movie
together and I emphasize on together I am very guilty of sometimes putting
things on the telly for the kids to watch so that I can get on with some
other jobs because I know that they're gonna be entertained they're gonna be
quiet or they're gonna be you know happy for a few minutes whilst I can do
something else but I feel like that doesn't give the kids that sense of
emotional connection I don't know about your kids but my kids absolutely love
when I'm doing things with them it's what they want all day long if they
could have their way I would be doing things with them all day long and that's
the way it should be but obviously we have to you know take care of things and
life doesn't just revolve around playing unfortunately I wish it did but when I
put on a movie and I sit down and I watch it with them and have that you
know like a running commentary where I'm saying things about seeing that I'm
seeing a movie and there saying things back as well I can see how
happy and relaxed and chilled their body language changes so much when I'm there
with them watching their favorite TV show or a movie and it's rare that I do
that because I just feel like that's my five minutes to get something done but
on days when I'm feeling so disconnected from them and like I feel like I need
that emotional connection with them watching the movie together those
wonders for us and yes it's screen time but screen time can be good and can be
used for you and your children to have some quality time together
and the last thing is just simply to sing and dance together but you really
have to go for it as a parent you can't just let them do all the singing and
dancing and watch you have to join in and do the choreography and the moves
and that's the way that I feel we connect the most when I just sit on the
sofa and let them dance around playing we don't really feel that deep
connection but when I'm in the middle of the room with them being silly and just
dancing and playing and not thinking too much into it just having fun with them
that's a great way to feel an emotional connection with the kids and it's one of
my favorite things to do with them so these are very simple things that I do
and they're things that you can do pretty much all of them apart from like
building something together which sometimes involves a lot more thought
and effort but the majority of them you can do in the space of a day and it
really does help me feel more connected and like I'm bonded more with my kids I
did a video quite awhile ago about how to bond with your baby and I'll leave
that video linked below because if you have young babies and you're watching
this video you might not take so much out of it that you can actually
practically use in your life so maybe the bonding with baby video
will be more helpful to you so leave that links below that was actually a
video in collaboration with my friend SJ and I loved doing that video with her I
hope you enjoyed this video hope you found it interesting or helpful if you
did don't forget to give it a thumbs up and share it with your friends if you
feel like they might find it interesting as well subscribe if you're new and come
back for a new video on Friday and also for mindful motherhood on Mondays I'll
see you next time bye