It has been said that a toddler who feels a strong connection with his or her parents is more likely to be happy. Fortunately for parents, there are many ways that you can strengthen the connection that you have with your toddler. Even better, there are not likely to be any adverse effects from nurturing that connection as frequently as you can.
Perhaps the essence of building a connection with your toddler can be summed up in two easy to remember words, time and attention. If you are anything like me, you may feel that time and attention are two commodities that seem to be in very short supply. It seems as though I can not devote as much time and attention to my boys as I would like to, even though I spend all day with them at home. That may sound weird, but it is just the way that I feel and I bet that I am not alone in feeling that way. Perhaps it’s that Mommy Guilt that people always talk about.
That said, when I looked at a list of ways in which people connect with their children, I was pleased to see that I do connect with my boys many, many times each day. Things like telling your toddler that you love him, and then telling him again five minutes later but in a different way. What other ways do we connect with our toddlers? Talking with your toddler about anything and everything, from how he got his name, to what it was like to feed him baby food for the first time, to what giraffes eat and where they live. Playing catch, chase, hide and seek, or any other game that you and your toddler make up together. Pretending you are anything, from mountain climbing explorers to a family of seals and anything in between. And that’s not all. We connect with our toddlers in so many ways that we do not even realize. Fortunately, it’s not about whether we realize that we are connecting with our toddlers, it is about whether our toddlers feel that connection with us. It looks like it is time for us to ditch the Mommy (or Daddy) guilt if we are consistently giving time and attention to our toddlers in any shape or form.
Photo by phaewilk on morguefile.com.