Since having a second child, the time spent with our first born has diminished. Obviously, right? 
At first it didn’t seem to be a big deal but then we could see some behavior changes and as L got older we wanted him to have special attention also. For over 2 years, N got all of our attention so I’m sure this was a big change.
We came up with a plan that one day each month we would have intentional kid/parent time. We switch out each month. Dad+N & Mom+L one month. Then Dad+L and Mom+N the next.
It’s been a few months and so far it’s been wonderful. There’s been two trips to the golf course and a Paw Patrol Live morning for N. L has gotten lunch dates and bike rides! Behavior is better, attitudes towards each other as brothers are better, and parents are having fun too!
This is a great opportunity to see how your child’s interests are changing along with what their love language is. Do you know what makes your kid feel most loved? For us, right now, I think one child feels loved with quality time and the other with food. But I understand that this is for right now and both of them are still small and figuring out life. So this is another reason we want to be intentional and make sure they each get quality time together.
Don’t worry. There’s still plenty of family time as a whole. Most of our time is spent all together. Plus we make sure to carve out fun family time each week/month. I never thought that we would need to “plan” out these things but for my type-a self, it helps to pencil these things in so I can make sure that it all gets done. These are important activities for our family so I want to make sure they are accomplished.
Because I know we all can’t come up with fun activities on the fly, I made a list of ideas for us. It’s nothing fancy. The list includes things that cost, but there’s tons of free options for us as well. The Home Depot Saturday mornings are one that I’m excited about. Even if not for one-on-one time but for just us taking the boys. In December, they build gingerbread houses. I’ve seen where they build trucks or birdhouses. It just looks like fun.
I cannot wait to keep up these little dates and see how our family unit strengthens because of us being intentional. Date ideas I’m most excited about…. home depot workshops, ice cream dates, bowling, planting things, and random acts of kindness.
In what ways are you intentional with your kids? Do you have kid dates or anything fun like that?
Thanks for the ideas
Love you kid date ideas! Something I will use in the future ❤️
Its so smart of you to be aware of this. Actually, I should say, it’s SO LOVING of you to have this consciousness. What a blessed family you have!! of yes, we carve out time for each child every week so that they get alone time taking turns with each parent. It is important to us that they grow up feeling 100% secure that they have our love and support no matter what, and that they do not need to compete for it.