Dr. David Palmiter's Blog for Hectic Parents

Many of we parent-lunatics want to create special moments with our kids amidst the madness of our hectic lives. This entry offers ideas themed around potential dad-daughter activities and mom-son activities. (Please be sure to read the four caveats at the end.)

Dads: 12 Things You Can Do with Your Daughter

1. Spend one hour a week doing nothing but paying attention to her and reflecting positive, specific and truthful messages.
2. Let her paint your nails or apply makeup
3. Take her for a trip to buy clothes or jewelry
4. Brush her hair (at least 100 strokes)
5. Go for a jog together
6. Take her to a trip to the city to see some sights and a show
7. Go for a long walk in nature, stopping along the way to study interesting flora and fauna
8. Take her bowling
9. Take her to get her nails done
10. Sing karaoke
11. Let her see you doing special things for her mom
12. Model to her that real men are affectionate, attentive, gentle and prioritize family life

Moms: 12 Things You can Do with Your Sons

1. Take him fishing
2. Play catch
3. Play an interactive video game with him
4. Spend one hour a week doing nothing but paying attention to him and reflecting positive, specific and truthful messages.
5. Find a pond where you can try to find frogs or other small creatures
6. Take him to see his favorite sports team play
7. Take a trip to the library and show him all the cool books that are there on topics he loves
8. Teach him how to do resistance training
9. Let him see you doing special things for his dad
10. Take a trip to a museum of natural history and afterwards ask him to make a drawing memorializing the trip.
11. Model to him that real women are not subservient to men, are faithful and value their minds at least as much as their bodies.
12. As you prioritize your family life, make sure he sees that you have outside interests and goals.

Some caveats:

• The organization of these ideas by sex is to be taken lightly, at best (e.g., maybe your son has the interest in fashion or your daughter in the sports team). So, think of these as 24 potential ideas for any parent-child relationship.

• The appropriateness of some of these activities will vary as a function of age (e.g., resistance training).

• Don’t worry about the ideas involving money if they aren’t practical. Required elements are creativity and commitment, not cash.

• Some of these ideas won’t apply to how your family is structured (e.g., single parent households). But the spirit behind each idea, with a pinches of creativity and commitment, can be extrapolated to other ideas.

Do you have other ideas you’d be willing to share?