A Fine Parent

A Life Skills Blog Exclusively For Parents

101 Fun Things To Do With Kids To Enjoy Everyday Family Life

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(This article is part of the Lighten Up series. Get free article updates here.)

101 Fun Things To Do With Kids To Enjoy Everyday Family Life - IntroductionOn a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy everyday family life (1 being the least, and 10 the most)?

If you had asked me that question a few years back, I’d have lied. My real answer would have been way too embarrassing to admit.

It’s so easy to get lost in the responsibilities of parenting that we forget to actually enjoy the journey!

We’ve come a long way since. One of the things I’ve learnt along the way is that if you remember to have fun, your day automatically becomes more enjoyable, irrespective of how mundane or stressful it may seem on the outside.

With that in mind, I’ve to put together a monster list of 101 Fun Things To Do With Kids To Enjoy Everyday Family Life. It’s a grab bag of ideas. Pick a few that you think might work for your family and give them a shot. Come back in a few days and pick a few more. And do it until you’re able to look at a perfectly routine, even boring or stressful situation and automatically find joy in it!

OK, we’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s jump right in –  [Read more…]

How to Get Your Kids to Open Up to You About Their Fears and Worries

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(This article is part of the Fear and Worry series. Get free article updates here.)

Getting Kids to Talk -- Expert AdviceDo your kids always tell you what’s going on in their impenetrable little worlds?

My daughter is a certified chatterbox. She’ll tell me about the space-camera-binocular-thingie she is building with Legos until I’m blue in the face from listening. Or about a fancy new restaurant she is going to open. Or the new obstacle course she’s designing.

But ask her what she did in school today, and I get nothing. Zilch. Nada.

She doesn’t get past two sentences about her day before getting sidetracked about something in her imagination that is too fantastic to ignore.

At times, it can be a bit frustrating not knowing what’s going on in her real world.

If you have kids who don’t tell you what they’re up to, for one reason or another, you know that feeling!

I sometimes wonder, if something ever really goes wrong or bothers her, will she tell me? Is there something I can do to make sure that she will?

So, I did what I’ve been doing lately… I reached out to 6 amazing experts in the parenting field and asked them –

How can we get our kids to open up to us about their fears and worries?

The answers they gave me were every bit as insightful and helpful as I’d hoped.

Here’s what I learnt about what we can do to get our kids to open up to us about their fears and worries –

[Read more…]

7 Common Mistakes That Keep Most Parents Unproductive (#3 is the One I’m Most Guilty Of)

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(This article is part of the Productivity series. Get free article updates here.)

(This article is part of the Productivity series. Get free article updates here.)

Let’s face it. No matter how productive we wish and vow to be, as parents, a lot of those good intentions end up down the drains…

Productivity Tips for Parents - Confused MomCooking gets done, but laundry piles up. Kids get dropped off and picked up, but the grocery trip gets nixed. You manage to prepare for that all-important meeting, but just can’t find the time to file that expense report.

I bet you’ve been there at some point or the other.

Have you ever wondered why this happens though? Why is it that we parents seem prone to being unproductive in spite of the desperate need to be as efficient and effective as possible?

Here are some of the common mistakes I believe are the culprits, and some possible fixes. Check it out and see if any of them are bringing you down. And if you have other reasons for your productivity slumps, do let us know in the comments below –

#1 Trying to be a super parent

There are so many times when I’m going about my day that I wonder “What did I do with all my time before having my daughter?”

There seems to be an exponential relationship between the size of your family, and the size of your to-do list – for every new addition to your family, the to-do list multiplies a hundred fold.

Add to that the unreasonable expectations that are placed on parents, either by the world around us, or our own aspirations to be awesome parents, and we trap ourselves in the unattainable goal of becoming super parents. And that doesn’t bode too well for our productivity.

The fix:

[Read more…]

13 Insanely Productive Parents, And a Sneak Peek at Their Favorite Productivity Apps

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(This article is part of the Productivity series. Get free article updates here.)

(This article is part of the Productivity series. Get free article updates here.)

13 Insanely Productive Parents, And a Sneak Peek at Their Favorite Productivity Apps

Do you use any productivity apps on your phone?

Would you like to know what some of the most insanely productive parents are using on their phones?

Me too 🙂

So, I reached out to a bunch of highly accomplished parents – founders of successful companies, authors of bestselling books, globe-trotting public speakers, high-demand consultants, bloggers who have bigger audience than a regular television station, and in many cases a combination of several of these, all while raising great kids — and asked them two simple questions –

Do you have any favorite productivity apps on your phone? Why do you find yourself using these regularly?

Here’s what they said –

(PS: Do your future self a favor and bookmark this page now. If you have any interest in the topic of productivity, you’ll come back to this page again. And again. And again.)

OK, in no particular order…

[Read more…]

Pomodoro Technique: Simple Time Management for Surviving in a World of Never Ending Distractions

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(This article is part of the Productivity series. Get free article updates here.)

(This article is part of the Productivity series. Get free article updates here.)

Pomodoro Technique: Simple Time Management for a World Full of DistractionsRaise your hands if you know exactly what you should do on any given day, but somehow the day slips by before you can knock even half the items off your list…

Maybe today was your day to be super productive, but just as you were getting started an important email interrupted you and threw you off the track. Or perhaps, you wanted to just check some news and blogs before getting started, but somehow half the day was gone before you knew it. Or was it one of those days that you actually did get started bright and early, but just as you were getting in the flow, a friend messaged you on Facebook, or Whatsapp, and it was all downhill from there?

Either ways, as you lay your head on the pillow at night, there’s a sick feeling in your stomach. Another day gone by. Another resolve to knock things off your “Get it Done” list failed.

How could you let this happen so often?

We the people of the information generation… we’re both blessed and cursed, don’t you think?

On the one hand, it’s amazing — we have more opportunities to learn, be entertained and stay connected than the generations before us could even imagine.

On the other, it’s downright evil — it creates enough distraction that no man, woman or child without a plan could ever hope to escape.

How do we tame this beast? How can we utilize the beautiful opportunities offered to us by the information age, without being so distracted by it that nothing ever gets done?  [Read more…]