Distracted While Parenting? Here’s How to Be More Attentive
Parenting is often a complex term and a complex situation to be in. For men, who like women, are not naturally trained in parenting, thereby distractions are part and parcel of parenting. And it’s okay to falter; it’s okay to make mistakes because we all learn from them.
Men have significant roles in the upbringing of children as women, and it’s about time that this topic is taken seriously and discussed. For, more and more men are turning to parent and enjoying it to the core.
Transitioning to the role of a parent is as incredible as one which comes loaded with responsibilities, which are not to be taken lightly.
There’s no reason that you men can do it any little better than women. Here are a few tips that will come in handy as you start parenting, and here’s how you can do the job at hand with more attention.
Let us first take you through what makes parents distracted:
- If you are always answering phone calls or your phone takes up the bigger space in your everyday life.
- If you use the phone at the dinner table, during any meals because meals are a time when families get together.
- If you suddenly spot kids running out of the door or running towards a hazardous spot without any parent around.
- If you have left your kid alone for a more significant span of time, and they fall asleep on their own without getting proper attention from you.
If the above reasons bother you, then surely you don’t want to be the man who lets these distractions in the way of his parenting.
What May Distracted Parenting Lead To?
Surely distractions during parenting have its cons. For example, you may not even know if your kid has a slight fall, which may stay on and lead to a bigger cause of worry in the future.
Your kid may accidentally trip onto something and endure cuts and bruises. Most of all, your kid may be left feeling lonely. This alone can be cited as the worst fallout of distracted parenting.
Achild needs more attention in his or her formative years. And as a father, you should ensure that your child gets your company during this phase of life.
Simple talking, hand movements, familiarising with colours, birds or things in nature will benefit your kid in numerous ways. In a few days, your kid will learn to identify things on their own and would actually require less attention from you as they grow up.
So, it’s important to spend time during these formative years to give your child a better future. Children tend to be more emotional if they don’t get attention, and you don’t want to run that risk.
Various research has shown how children withdraw into themselves if their parents tend to pay less attention to them.
Possible To Manage Distractions
As mentioned earlier, it’s okay to make mistakes. You are human at the end of the day, and you have your baggage. Because parenting is not the only job at hand, and you have to be equally attentive to the professional world out there.
As a man, you can analyse the situation, talk to other men, your friends, and ask them for tips. Ask them what they do when they have a child who is unwilling to cooperate because that child is feeling left out.
Talk to your child, take him out, make some gesture that makes him or her feel necessary in your life.
You Can Still Be An Amazing Parent; Nothing Is Lost!
Take some time out and sit and reflect what the things that distract you from giving full attention to your child are.
Let go off all the guards and ask yourself fundamental questions that you have not considered so far. Look around and see what others are doing right, and you are not.
- Are you spending quality time with your family? When was the last time you actually sat together and had conversations with your family and even discussed the problems surrounding your child?
- Have you been eating meals together as a family? Has your kid left the food uneaten while you were busy on the phone?
- When was the last time you played with your kid or your young adult child? What changes have you noticed in them if you have stopped playing?
- Does your kid or the adolescent behave like before, or has there been noticeable changes?
Once you have asked yourself these questions, now go to your child’s room and have a heart to heart chat with them. Mind the age of your child while talking.
Be playful if he or she is a kid and sensitive if your child is an adolescent, Carefully choose your words and say something comforting that makes them feel that nothing has changed and they have all your attention.
Look into the eyes of your child when you talk to them. See if they are making eye contact with you. Notice if they are on the phone while you are trying to strike a conversation with them and explain gently.
When the child starts listening to you, be nothing but honest with them. Remember, children appreciate honesty more than flattery.
Flattery would mean you are trying an easy way out of the situation instead of facing it. As a father, you have the responsibility of making that connection that your child deserves and give it time to happen.
Don’t try to make changes overnight; let your child see your efforts in parenting. There will consistently be interruptions in our lives.
However, those ought to be our minutes that cause changes in our conduct. We would all be able to figure out how to turn out to be not so much diverted. We can be better about putting the telephone down, shutting the PCs, or just switching off the TV so as to connect with our youngsters in the discussion, visually connect over the table, speak in gestures, be sensitive and intuitive and have the opportunity to play.
It will be just about the time when your child will notice these changes and come around.
