Tuning In: Making Your Presence Count
Prioritised
Tuning In: Making Your Presence Count
Learn how to help your children feel prioritised through attention, presence and predictable rhythms — even with an unpredictable schedule.
Children value your availability and attention more than the time you spend with them. If you can be fully present when you are with them, it makes a huge difference to them.
The stress of flexibility
While being a church leader can mean you have the flexibility to adjust your schedule to turn up at school or take a child out for lunch, children can find the unpredictability of this stressful.
Two ways to reduce the stress of flexibility:
Make a calendar
When children can see and understand their parents’ schedule, a lot of the stress of flexibility is removed.
Be faithful
When you are faithful to the schedule, to the arrangements you have made with your children, it reinforces their priority in your life.
Be fully present
Your schedule might allow you to watch a movie with your kids in the afternoon, but they want you to be fully present, your mind and attention as well as your body.
Three ways to be fully present:
- Don’t multitask
- Use bridging activities
- Ditch the phone
