How to find ‘we-time’ with your child every day

We-time, together with your child, in a cocoon of love and attention. In our busy society, it’s the new gold. Priceless. And if you look very closely, it’s available all the time. 

Small chores

The small, simple tasks are the most fun. Washing up, fiddling with plants, painting something, baking cookies. The best thing is when your child is able to do a little chore that is actually useful. But you can also do the opposite: let your kid do the cooking and help them. Meanwhile, you have all the time in the world for chatter.

Wanna play?

Always agree if your child asks you to play, Shonda Rhimes writes in her book ‘A year of yes’. It was the most important lesson she learned during the year in which she agreed to everything.

Watch along

Put yourself inside your child’s shoes and see the world through their eyes. Try to imagine what it felt like, to learn to swim. Remember how exciting that was?

Bedtime talk

It’s nice to have a daily moment to talk, for instance before your kid goes to sleep, on the rim of the bed. Or buy a notebook and jot down three things that went well that day, together with your son or daughter.

Be bored together

Lay in the grass or in a hammock together, sit on a bridge with your feet in the water. Watch the leaves on the trees together, or stare at the clouds and compare what shapes you see in them. Especially if you spend a lot of time in front of a screen, it’s important to put your brain in ‘pause’ mode regularly.

We’re going on a bear hunt!

Go to the beach at night and comb the beach together with a flashlight. Go camping in the woods. Or catch a bus with the number of your child’s age, and see where it brings you.

Text: Anne Wesseling – Photo: Caroline Hernandez