Parenting
as a
Friend

How to Bond

Conversation: The most straight forward way to bond with your kids in talking with them. Set up 20 minutes each day when you simply exchange comments and talk about anything that comes to mind in an equal manner, not like father or mother with daughter or son, but as two people discussing the world. The idea is to do it with each kid separately, so the bond is more easily set.

Thank you: Tell your kids everyday "Thank you for being my daughter/son", this may be an obvious thing for us, but they need to make sure our love is always and will always be there.

Respect: The way you treat your kids is the way they are going to treat themselves, if you treat them like babies they will think of themselves like babies. I do not mean to expect them to make decisions or behave like adults but let them be themselves with full respect from their opinions and behavior like we do with adults.

One way to easily let them feel like partners is with board games, at least once a week schedule a game family night, or play one on one with your kid. (Someone told me her father used to play chess with her, but took pieces out before the game started to give her some advantage, as she became a better player the pieces were fewer until eventually they played a regular game).

Next Chapter: Start with Yourself