Being a mother is truly one of my favorite things to be. It’s true that mothering gets tough. You run through all sorts of craziness during motherhood. Hospital visits, surgeries, skinned knees, temper-tantrums. Children are expensive. Activities are expensive. Homework is grueling. Then you have those sleepless nights where you wonder if you’re doing anything right.
Sound familiar? Please tell me I’m not the only one with the sleepless nights!
Anyway, no matter how hard things get my role as a mother is very important. Making time to mentor, love and support my kids is essential.
Here are a few fun ways to show your kids love this week:
Create a family game night. Even if the only game is tag outside. Game ideas we love: Monopoly (I am usually the winner and this lasts for hours) I honestly don’t like playing this game because of how long it takes. What I do like is that this game brings out the fun side of the family! Last time we played I notice how much my stepdaughter is a sweet little soul! She felt bad when people owed her money and often wanted to forgive them. My nephew on the other hand is a sore loser; so teaching him to lose gracefully and win gracefully was a bit of a challenge. We also love Uno! Super easy, fast paced game. You can decide how many rounds you’ll play and the player with the most wins at the end gets a small prize! Like an extra ten mins of screen time or an extra homemade chocolate chip banana muffin! What works for me to be able to enjoy some family time is playing a game I already know that way I’m not focused on getting everyone to play by the rules, because I am totally a play-by-the-rules kind of girl!
Cook with them! My 2 year old has the biggest smile on her face when I let her help me cook scrambled eggs. It takes a few minutes of me holding her on one side and letting her help move the spatula around and she’s happy! The good thing is she’s not messing around doing who knows what while I’m cooking! I also let my 11yr old nephew make us breakfast or help with dinner. It’s a nice way to spend time with the kids and bonus–you get some help in the kitchen!
Go for a walk or bike ride with them. Try looking for nature trails and go out when the temp is not too hot or cold! During the summer months our walks and rides are few and far between unless we go out at night.
Take them out for a one-on-one activity. When I was younger my grandma would wake me up every Saturday morning and we would walk to McDonald’s and eat breakfast together. It wasn’t anything special just pancakes and sausage but I treasure that alone time I got to spend with my grandma. Now, I won’t be taking my kids out to McDonald’s cause we’re just not big fans, but I have taken my son out on family date nights you can try a movie or cool diner. Try any place where you make it about them, ask questions, get to know their little hearts! You might be surprised about what they say. If you’re on a budget an and can’t afford a whole dinner out, try taking them out for ice cream or some other dessert. You can still make it fun!
Make Meals Fun! My threenager is horrible at the meal table. She gets distracted so easily and will not finish her food most of the time. We tried taking time for a slower breakfast this week by making a game with our Honey Nut Cheerios. I had her practice counting with her Cheerios and she loved it! This was a fun reminder for me to slow it down and enjoy these sweet moments that I will never get back. They’re only this little once, ya know.
You can learn more about Cereal con Cariño by visiting here.
How do you show your kids love? Let me know in the comments.
Do you get the Resource Page?
Each week I'll send you the latest Resource Page. In it, you'll find
- Handy tips for focusing on positivity throughout your week.
- Tricks for getting your kids to listen to your every word (just kidding,Girl-- I'm still working on getting my kids to listen!) But I will send you fun activity ideas for you and your kids to do together.
- Useful tools that I come across, like meal planning ideas and such!
I love this post, Crystal! You made playing with your food acceptable for me sometimes now. lol The video was so sweet!
monica recently posted…31 Ways To Add Some Sweetness To Your Marriage
Thank you Monica! I saw that you made your kids a printable so they could play with snacks-genius!
Your daughter is too cute! It looks like she had fun with the Cheerios activity. My daughter loves Cheerios too. I need to use them more for things like this!
Great tips…Love honey nut cheerios…and your little one is adorable 🙂
Daisy Suman recently posted…Monthly updates, lessons learned and site statistics for September 2016
Thank you Daisy!