I recently discovered that bath time can be a good opportunity to do a lot more bonding moments with my kids beyond just keeping them clean.
I recently started in a new company. It’s in a different industry, with a
different culture, a different way of doing things, and with a much younger
workforce. Suffice it to say that my day is full and hectic with juggling
all of my deliverables on top of learning new concepts and navigating new
systems.
Bath Time As A Bonding Opportunity With My Kids
I wouldn’t really say that I’m already swamped with work, it’s just that I’m
still adjusting to a world that seemed galaxies away from banking, my previous
industry. Not only that, I’ve been away from full-time work because I did
freelance for about ten months.
Working from home is also hectic
Even during the days when I’m working from home, I find it hard to stay away
from my laptop even for just a few minutes. That meant that I couldn’t take
Miguel to school anymore. I couldn’t also put Rafa to sleep for his afternoon
nap because I’m usually in meetings right after lunchtime.
I only get to be with my two boys when I log out in the afternoon at 5 PM
(overtime, included), which seemed like too little anytime anymore. The good
news is that at least I wouldn’t have to commute home since, well, I’m just in
my home office. Even so, our bonding time still feels too short.
Finding new ways to bond with my kids
As a solution, here are some of the things that I did:
Drop everything by the 8th hour of work. I figured that my kids’ afternoon
playtime is limited from around 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM, it’s a wise idea to drop
all work by around 5:00 PM so that I can still play with them. If I have to
render overtime, I do it in the morning.
Dinnertime is also bonding time. I take care of feeding Rafa during dinner
time while their yaya supervises Miguel’s dinner, who is currently polishing
his skills in using the spoon.
Bath time bonding
Another wonderful opportunity to bond with Miguel and Rafa that I’ve realized
is during their bath time. Their Mommy and I are away in the office most of
the time while I work from home every Thursday and Friday.
Since I save time and energy on commuting, I could use these to bond with my
kids during their bath time so I said to their yaya that I’ll just take care
of their evening shower. Again, it’s an opportunity to talk to them and even
sing nursery rhymes with them. I talk to them when I brush their teeth and I
can see that Rafa really enjoys those moments.
On the other hand, it’s an opportunity to teach body parts to Miguel. His
teacher told me that he needed help in identifying body parts so that’s what
we’re working on at the moment.
Epilogue
When you are a working parent, it always feels that your time to do all the
things that you need to do is insufficient. At times, we feel like we are bad
parents for having so little time with our children; the traffic situation in
our country is not helping at all.
As such, it’s good for us to find small opportunities and turn these into
bonding moments with our children. For our case, it’s turning bath time into a
bonding opportunity. After our evening bath, we also read stories to our kids
to cap our day.
How about you, do you have any ordinary daily activities that you were able to
turn into a bonding opportunity with your kids? Feel free to share them in the
comment section below.
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Kala ko commercial, pero legit pala na lesson. Thanks for This Daddy Ivs. Ill see bath time as binding time as well
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