Quality time is an opportunity for you to further develop your relationship with your child. It will help nurture your bond and serve as a foundation for other parenting strategies.
Spending quality time with your child will help create more positive moments and strengthen the relationship over time. Over the long-term, strong relationships are essential for children to feel safe and feel confident in dealing with the challenges that come up in life. In the short-term, strong relationships can help motivate a child to behave more cooperatively. This can result in improvements in challenging behaviors and academic engagement.
Quality time entails one-on-one interactions with your child that are directed by your child. It includes spending time with each other and focusing on what your child is doing well. Quality time is a great way to show curiosity and interest in your child and what they are doing. It also involves being mindful of your questions and comments in order to support the strengthening of your relationship.
Example activities can include:
2. Create a quality interaction through what you do and don’t do.
What to do | What not to do |
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Describe what your child is doing | Use this as a time to teach |
Praise your child for what they are doing | Criticize/correct behavior |
Show affection (hugs, high fives, etc.) | Ask too many questions |
Plan ahead: It’s easy to forget to make space for quality time if there isn’t a plan in place. Life often gets in the way! So, here are some questions to help develop your plan:
What are the types of quality time activities that your child would like to do?
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How long will each quality time last? __________________________________________________________
How often will you have quality time? _________________________________________________________
Where can you have quality time? ____________________________________________________________
What are some things that may get in the way of sticking with your plan? What can you do to address these obstacles?
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What are some ways you can remember to have quality time? Who can help support you and remind you to have quality time?
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What’s one thing you most look forward to experiencing during quality time with your child?
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Recording what you’re doing is a helpful way to know how things are going. Here is a table that can help you keep track of and learn from your experiences:
Date | Activity | Amount of Time | How well you did (see do’s & don’ts above) | Your child’s response |
😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | 😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | |||
😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | 😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | |||
😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | 😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | |||
😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | 😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | |||
😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | 😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | |||
😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | 😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | |||
😀 🙂 😐 🙁 | 😀 🙂 😐 🙁 |