{"id":4467,"date":"2018-01-18T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T16:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/?p=4467"},"modified":"2018-01-04T08:22:35","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T13:22:35","slug":"keeping-kids-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/keeping-kids-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Kids Close"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n One of our favorite ways to stay close to our kids was always spending one-on-one time with them. Yes, we had seven children in fourteen years. Yes, we were busy. Yes, my husband worked long hours.<\/p>\n But just about nothing got in the way of staying close to our kids. It was that important. (And it still is today with our adult children ages seventeen to thirty-two!)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Carving out one-on-one time with our kids in a busy household is not easy. Everything is vying for our time and attention. However, one way that we found to do this was to \u201cmake a date.\u201d That is, make appointments and actual schedule that time so that (1) the child knew it was coming and (2) we knew that it was already planned and the child knew about it\u2014so we were less likely to cancel. (Somehow, saying that we are going to have more time together just doesn\u2019t work that well!)<\/p>\n We did this in a number of ways\u2014half birthday dinners with Mom and Dad, Wonderful Wednesdays, \u201csit closest to Mom days,\u201d and many more…all of which give me great joy in their memories.<\/p>\n Recently we have added a downloadable product to our store to help families set up these \u201cappointments\u201d with their kids. They are called \u201cKeep Close Coupons.\u201d<\/a> The title alone tells your child that time with him or her is important\u2014it is purposeful. That you want time with your child and that you want to be close to him.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I have tips in the Keep Close Coupon front matter describing how to use these coupons, so I thought I would share them here in a blog post as well. These tips apply whether you buy our coupons or create your own. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n (For more on building strong relationships with your kids, see our podcast episode, Ten Tips for Staying Close During Intense Training Times With Tweens and Teens.<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thoughts about these coupons<\/strong><\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> There are a lot of coupons for special things floating around, but we like these because their name tells the why behind them. We are going to do this or that because we want to keep close.<\/p>\n