The Key To Keeping Up With Kids Is Slower Parenting

Photo Credit: Jim Mills

This past May, Jada Pinkett-Smith held a discussion with her mother, Adrienne, and daughter, Willow, in the first edition of Red Table Talks. During their talk, Pinkett-Smith spoke of the time she spent away from home working on Hawthorne, while Willow shared how it affected her being without her mom for so long. Additionally, she touches on discovering that the best way to be there for her family was to make time for herself. In a recent Washington Post opinion piece, writer and mother, Janice D’Arcy shares advice given to her from parenting book author, Susan Sachs Lipman, on slowing down in order to keep up with kids.

In Lipman’s book Fed up with Frenzy: Slow Parenting in a Fast-Moving World, she refers to this method “slow parenting.” She suggests that parents, themselves, are creating their own stress, not school, kids or work adding that what kids want most from their parents is attention and  un-pressured  time. Parents should learn to create more opportunities for bonding and having fun.

“Slow parenting doesn’t look the same for every family and can even change from time to time within a family, based on family needs,” she said. “It isn’t as much about doing nothing as it is about doing things consciously and at the right pace for the family.”

With slow parenting comes more playtime and learning, both of which have been proven to influence better performance in school when shared with family. It’s about being more involved and engaged in a child’s life while taking the time to be more attentive to the child’s needs as opposed to what a parent may see as being best (i.e. working too much).

BMWK– How can you work on your “slow parenting” skills at home? Do you see a difference in your home when you slow down instead of being in constant, busy motion?

About the author

Stacie Bailey is a recent graduate of Quinnipiac University with a master’s degree in Interactive Communications. She has strong interests in relationships, health, social media and an overall love for sharing knowledge and information.

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