Better Parenting While Working Full-time

If you're a parent working full time, there are ways to strengthen the bonds with your child. They won't detract from your professional life, and they will enhance your personal life.

• Establish ritual moments; let your child know that those moments are special and important to you. Try having breakfast together every morning, for example, or a before bedtime snack. This is also a good time to read together. Routines and patterns do provide security for children.

• Make your self accessible by phone when you're at work. Talk briefly at least once a day with your child. Use notes and letters to show your interest and affection when you can't be there in person.

• Include your child in your work life, through pictures taken at the office or maybe a trip there sometime.

• Once in a while, do something special for yourself and your child; you might want to take a sick day from work and spend with your child. Some parents call these mental health days.

• There are all sorts of ways to express love. What parents who work outside the home lack in time, they do make up for in imagination and love.

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