Our schedules are jam-packed with meetings, official travel, weekend plans, holidays, movies and what not. This leaves us almost no time to spend with our little ones. Still in the midst of all the clutter, our munchkins demand our attention with all their might. Lingering on, many of us also fall into the trap of feeling guilty due to our unavailability. The truth is that all of us are trying to fit into the demands of the ultimate work - life balance and are not alone in this fight. We all are striving to find the slightest streak of time to spend some warm time with our families.
Bonding was never an issue ever. But, with shortage of time, there are surging issues in creating the adequate environment for the natural growth of children. Suddenly we have more artificial environments and superficial relationships in the form of day cares and nannies. We are all stuck in the same well and trying to pull-push the rope to come up.
In the given circumstances, what can be the best way to bond with our children in the shortest time possible?
The answer is that, the perfect parent-child bonding tool is just ten minutes away!
A Parenting Lifestyle can have it's best experience by making "Story Telling" an eternal part of the daily routines and struggles.
Stories are the most creatively simple form of art to enlighten children with the core life skills required for survival and growth too.
Children who are brought up on stories are holistically balanced in every way.
Some great benefits of story telling are-
1. Build the never-ending quest for learning and thinking process
Children right from the start are intellectually sound & knowledgeable. With stories, their thirst for learning continues forever since it has already been built throughout the growing-up years. Devoting a ten minute regime daily builds a certain discipline in the child to keep working on exploring the several boundaries of their thinking process. This in turn has an everlasting impact on the child's imagination, confidence level and self-esteem too.
2. Score high on emotional intelligence
Since stories are all about give and take between two sources, children know they have to wait their turn. Also, the several characters and themes of the stories gives them a much clear picture of how the world works in reality and in fantasy too.Kids becomes self-aware of their conscious needs and over-whelming wants. Just like there is a structure of a story - Background, theme, action, plot, style, climax, ending; Children too start structuring their understanding of themselves (intra-personal skills) and clearly flag their feelings to express them through emotions. This leads to a through cleaning of the psychological mental state of the body and the mind. There by, children understand the significance of life and also live out the delicate balance of yin and yang.
3. Cultural and Inter personal (relationship) skills
Stories are a great source to keep children grounded to their cultural roots. For parents, usually the best way to start telling stories is by sharing their childhood
incidents and family tree history. Many cultures, languages, linguistics and communities have survived the test of time by carrying forward traditions, festivals and
observance of occasions through the art of story telling. Tangible crafts and intangible heritage need to survive the generations through the knowledge of their
existence. Stories are the best way to keep them in remembrance with the future generations.
4. The Power of Perseverance
The keep trying till you succeed attitude has taken a huge fall with today's world of use and throw. Stories build the attitude of keeping at it till one achieves the desired results. Not keep shifting focus, but, keep giving the best shift even if time eludes. Also, children tend to become more mindful of their physical boundaries.
Because the patience they showed in listening to the stories gives them the power of labelling their work areas and their several energy levels at different times.
5. Inclusiveness and Diversity
Stories portray several kinds of characters and keep the child open minded to accept and not judge people. They become socially sensitive & empathetic and
confident to be out there in any corner of the world and survive the odds. Since we live in a global world, it's essential we make children understand through stories what it means by 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', - the world is one family!
Your story telling time is the most intimate bonding time you have with your children where every tiny move is questioned and answered.
Just by cooking-up a ten minute story for your child's bedtime, you can take care of your parenting role for a lifetime.
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