Staying Connected With Our Kids

Find Common Ground
It’s equally important to find things that you and your child enjoy doing together. Sometimes, that means you suggest an activity, and other times, you follow your kid’s lead. “For example, my mom taught me to play tennis at a young age. It was our thing that we both enjoyed doing, and it brought us together. She would come to my matches in high school, and now as adults, we still play tennis together,” said Laura Fonseca, a child and adolescent psychotherapist.

This can take some effort on your part, as what you might think will work, won’t. I thought we might become a family that bikes together…until I realized that my carpel tunnel syndrome made gripping handlebars difficult. You might need to think outside the box to find that common ground, and not worry if it looks different from other families.

Lately I’ve been watching Miss Marple mysteries with my ninth grader at her request—it’s a special time during the week that we share, just the two of us. My husband and another daughter have started running races together, which combines their love of running with father-daughter time. For one of my sons, I point out interesting articles about birds in the newspaper or magazine, as he’s a budding ornithologist.