Making time for your kids
Richard Hardy explains how to plan ahead when it comes to spending time with his kids…
Despite always telling me how important it is to plan ahead, my dad went through a phase of playing ‘Russian Roulette’ with the needle on his petrol gauge. I think he believed that the car ran better on fumes than liquid petroleum. I’ll never forget the day the car sputtered and died, and we ended up pushing it 2½ miles to a petrol station.
As dads, we ignore the warning lights and the needle hovering in the red because things have always worked out in the past. But, a little forward planning can be crucial.
Never Too Late To Start
One of the most important things you can do for your child is to make time for them. I really hope my son remembers I listened to his worries when he was six (and he thought girls were yucky), because then he might just want to talk to me at sixteen when he’ll think differently!
Even teenagers occasionally want to talk – usually at 2 a.m. As a dad, I need to listen when they need to talk.
Copy Cats
My kids learn how to treat other people and themselves by copying me or their mum, whether we intend to teach them or not. We want them to emulate our good characteristics, but they often copy our bad habits.
Because they copy us, it’s important to teach our kids to respect others and themselves, and the best way we can do this is by showing them love. My hope is that if they know they’re loved unconditionally, they’ll feel less pressure to impress their peers and won’t rely on their friends’ opinion for their sense of value.
Written by Richard Hardy. Posted on 7th November.
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