Your parents or your toys?

As Annelies and Carol discussed single parenting and Vanessa talks about rich/poor moms, we can see that there are a lot of different situations that effects parent-child quality time. But how to define quality time? A daily chat at dinner? Watching tv together? Buy the latest toys for your kids?

First, we should not forget that our family situation will to a large extend define our lifestyle. But this doesn’t mean that a lower labour income will have a negative effect on the quality time with your kids. ‘Quality time’ can have different meanings for many parents. If you look at the total amount of money spent on presents for the kids as ‘quality time’, we sure don’t have a very good definition with that. Sadly in many cases, a lot of children will not value the parents for who they are, but for what they get... Those parents with a better relationship usually have educated their kids to value also immaterial things. Time spent together on trips, dinners, games,... everything where they enjoy each others' company. They usually feel loved and cared for and in many cases feel inspired by their parents.

Finally, we can define that the quantity of time spent with children is rather a good indicator of quality time. A good parent-child relationship starts when children are very young and actually never ends. Open communication and being available is key. But also doing sports, having a chat, going to the movies, playing boardgames, etc. My opinion is that by spending time together with your children, they will learn that it is the relationship that matters, not the material side of life.

 Pauline Opdebeeck

Source: http://singleparents.about.com/od/communicatingwiththekids/a/quality_time_2.htm