For those who have children this week’s Motto of the Week is to take 5 minutes of your time each day to play with your kids. Yes, I can hear you say you don’t have time in your busy schedule, or you think they have grown up and don’t need you to play with them anymore.

But the Child-Development Institute explains how playtime with your kids enhances and regulates their emotions, behaviour and teaches them how to build a strong foundation for positive relationships.

Click here for more information from The Child Development Institute

I’m suggesting 5 minutes a day is all you need to not only help your child, but to help you de-stress, enjoy, and have fun with your children. Spending time with your kids and having family games or an outing once a week is a must.

When having to juggle busy schedules with work, family life, and taking your kid to one activity or another, we miss out on ‘playtime’ individually with our child and as a family.  We can always make time for what we want to do, be it on the mobile searching for that crucial holiday or catching up with a friend – but we can easily miss out on the most important relationship we can have. And that is with our kids.

So get off the iPad, the computer, or the phone. Each day of the week, for just 5 minutes, schedule in one activity you can do with your child each day.  If you have more than one child, each child is to be given 5 minutes of your time for themselves.  See how you feel, see how you bond with your child and how quickly a better relationship is formed between you.  They will be calmer, you will shout and be stressed less. This is guaranteed to make you and your child feel good.

Make sure you put a timer on and keep a consistent boundary. Simply rotate the games each week. You may come up with your own but here are a few suggestions of games you can play:

Monday – staring game, first person to blink loses a point
Tuesday – arm wrestle
Wednesday – hangman
Thursday – first person to smile loses
Friday – snap, a game of cards to match pictures
Thursday – catch a ball
Friday – massage your kid’s hands/feet and get them to massage yours
Weekends – family time

Feel free to recommend any games you can play in 5 minutes.

These weekly mottos are my thoughts and opinions only.  If you are interested or have any questions do let me know.
Your feedback is welcomed and appreciated.