How To Savour Your Kids

By: Phoebe Ackland, ellaslist

We just adored Erica Layne's guide on 32 ways to savour your kids. The cliche 'they grow up so fast' really is true- her article begs mums and dads to stop and enjoy their little ones whilst their hands are still so small that they're hard to hold.

Layne talks about how, after a sweet moment of affection from her 8-year old whilst she was stressed out with chores and to-do lists, she realised that it is so easy to get caught up in the 'doing' of motherhood rather than the simple 'being' with your kids. "These children? They’ll only be in my home for a short time. They’ll be mine forever, but they’ll never again need everything from me. Once they’ve outgrown my lap, they’ll never truly fit there again (although they’ll always be welcome). This is it", she wrote. 

Here are some of our favourites:

1. Watch them when they sleep.

2. Inhale them after they bathe.

3. Break a personal parenting rule or two. I recently took my 3-year-old daughter to get a pedicure. I mean, she’s three! But as it turns out, it’s a memory I’ll savor for a long time.

4. Be silly. Sing at the top of your lungs in the car, dance in the grocery store, pull a harmless prank.

5. Watch them closely when their minds are fully engaged in something they love.

6. Get rid of guilt. It’s clouding your view.

7. Climb under some blankets and read to them. (And for those moments, choose not to let it bother you when you get sat on and accidentally elbowed a dozen times during your reading session.)

8. Make it your goal for a day to double the amount of eye contact you have with your children.

9. Organize some one-on-one dates with your children.

10. Experience something new with them—something they’ve never seen

11. Listen.

12. When you pack away a size of clothing your child has outgrown, make a little ritual of remembering this last stage and how quickly it passed.

13. Don’t round UP on their ages. Even if your child turns 7 in two months, keep thinking of him as 6. There’s need to hurry childhood along, right?

14. Steal some extra time brushing your child’s hair. Keep on brushing it straight through the teen years.

15. Read the heartfelt things your kids write about you and let them sink in. (When our kids give us valentines or birthday cards, are we really taking their words in? It’s time to start.) You can read the rest here.

You can read the rest of the list here. It finishes with a beautiful poem to print out and stick on your fridge: 

Source: Erica Layne