10 Ways to Spend Meaningful Time with Your Children

Greg, a Play of the Day subscriber, wrote us the following:

“I was promoted to the General Sales Manager position of a local radio station not long after my first child was born. That position required days of long hours that usually ended with a meeting with the owner of the station to wrap things up and plan for upcoming events. Because of that, I had missed out on a few opportunities to be home when my daughter went to sleep and, sometimes, left the house before she woke up.

I mentioned that to the owner in one of those meetings. He said that being a ‘winner’ in the position I was in would require me to ‘miss some parties and special events in your daughter’s life, but she would never remember whether you were there or not.’ My immediate thought at the time was I would remember I was not there.

I did not stay long on that job. I was at those special events to watch her grow up and I remember all of them. She was married in March and I miss having her around now, even though I know she is happy. But I do not have the regrets of not being there as she grew up.”

The true definition of a winner is someone who spends lots of meaningful time with their children.

The true definition of a winner is someone who spends lots of meaningful time with their children. Here are 10 ways to spend time with family in a meaningful way.

1. Sitting together reading a book aloud (bedtime counts).
2. Hiking or camping with them.
3. Teaching them to play chess.
4. Teaching them to play dominos (and how to win and lose gracefully).
5. Building and flying a kite together.
6. Building and racing a Pinewood Derby together.
7. Making up a story one paragraph at a time (you start, he does paragraph 2, you do paragraph 3, etc.).
8. Teaching them basic cooking skills (8 years and up).
9. Teaching them how to critique a movie (teens).
10. Taking them to work with you at a homeless shelter.