Why Parents Must Spend Quality Time With Kids Daily: Even 20 Minutes Can Make A Difference

To help them meet their developmental goals, and to foster an environment wherein children are truly happy and healthy, parents must consider spending quality time with them, as a family, even if it is for 20 minutes only.

Spending quality time with children and bonding as a family: Yes, parents are often busy, chasing their goals, aspirations, and creating a comfortable and financially-secure life for their children. But, what children want more than anything else, is to spend time with parents and bond as a family. For their growth and nurturing, parents have to create a conflict-free environment at home, where children can laugh out loud, find interest in studies, and meet their developmental goals, while also being physically and mentally fit.

The Importance Of Child Development

Over the last few decades, many families have started to foster children’s holistic development. According to Monu Lal Sharma, associate professor, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research & Studies, holistic development means comprehensive growth of children, including their cognitive development, physical and motor development, socio-emotional development, literacy and numeracy development, spiritual and moral development, and art and aesthetic development, for which a family needs to provide a stimulating environment and quality time to children. “…especially for young children, parent-child relationship builds the foundation of socio-emotional development, attachment, learning about life and contentment, and overall well-being,” the expert says.

Children Having A Secure And Healthy Attachment With Parents

The expert says many neurological and psychological researchers have claimed early experiences lay down the foundation of later cognitive and executive functioning and emotional regulation. “This is possible only if children have had a secure and healthy attachment with their parents. To build secure attachment and healthy relationships with children, parents need to spend quality time with them,” he advises.

It is true that in today’s world — where both the parents are working, or living in a nuclear set-up — it can be a tad difficult to provide uninterrupted attention to children and build bonds. Families just do not have enough time to spend together.

Citing research conducted in the United States, the professor states that families with school-aged children spend an average of only 37 minutes of quality time together during a typical weekday, and 2 hours and 40 minutes during a typical weekend. In India, a study found that parents, on an average, spend 7.7 hours daily on their smartphones. In comparison, they spend nearly two hours with their children.

How Do You Define Quality Time?

According to Sharma, quality time is a science of nurturing and fostering holistic development in children, molding their cognitive structure to achieve better learning outcomes, building resilience, curiosity and life contentment. “It is when parents or caregivers dedicate time to engage in activities that children like,” he says.

There are two distinct categories of quality time:

Parental involvement, including reading books, singing songs, role play, puppet play, guided play, activities for language and numeracy concepts, etc.
Parental involvement in daily routine activities, which includes making lunch or dinner together, taking children outside for games, helping them with daily functioning, watching TV/movies together, etc.

Spend At Least 20 Minutes Daily

The expert suggests spending at least 20 minutes with children every day. Engage them in activities that do not involve the use of TV, mobile phone, social media, computer, tablet, etc.

“Spending quality time with children has a significant impact on their physiological and psycho-social well-being, helping them learn positive values, traditions, skills, behaviours. Quality family time affects children’s health and well-being differently across age groups and developmental stages. For younger age — especially in early infancy and early childhood years — quality family time helps them to develop communication and language skills. In early and late adolescence, quality family time helps kids develop higher mental processes, problem-solving abilities, sense of belongingness, learning about social ecology, social institutions, and other things that contribute to their academic success.”

Important Things Parents Must Know

Quality family time has significant physiological and mental health benefits across.
For adolescents and early adults, family time reduces the risk of developing depression, anxiety, stress, problematic behaviour, etc.
Quality family time makes children feel loved and valued. It gives them a sense of purpose, increases their confidence, and self-esteem.
Parents can engage children with different activities at home or outside, in a healthy manner.
Parents can create a positive and stimulating environment at home, and participate in activities together that can promote better behaviour and learning outcomes.