- As we read on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, preschoolers and older children have completely different needs for daily exercise
- Regular home conferences and writing down ideas on a piece of paper are a great way to prevent weekend arguments over the choice of shared entertainment
- According to the suggestions of the HealthyChildren website, choosing games based on the cooperation of the entire team effectively reduces the risk of arguments and crying after a loss.
- Cooking dinner or cleaning together is perfect because it allows you to easily divide specific tasks between a toddler and a teenager
- The publication in Therapeutic Recreation Journal confirms that engaging the entire family in simple challenges teaches communication and builds closeness.
Children of different ages do not want to play together. We explain the reasons
When you have a toddler and a teenager at home, coming up with one entertainment is often almost impossible. A younger child would like to run around the playground non-stop, an older child would rather sit with the phone or meet friends, and your dream is a moment of silence. Everyone pulls in their own direction, which often ends in great frustration and eventually everyone locks themselves in their rooms.
This situation is simply a result of… other needs at different stages of development. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, preschoolers aged three to five need to be constantly moving throughout the day, while older children will be content with about an hour of specific physical activity a day. Forcing such different characters to do something in the same way is usually doomed to failure, so it is worth looking for completely different solutions.
How to plan family time without arguing about the choice of fun? Important rules
It might be a good idea organizing regular home meetingsfor example once a week, where over tea everyone will suggest what they would like to do on the weekend. It is worth hanging a simple card on the fridge on which household members write down what they would enjoy most in their free time. According to the Center for Effective Parenting website, it is good to establish clear rules during such a meeting, such as speaking in turn and not ridiculing your sister’s or brother’s ideas, and if there is disagreement, you can simply take a quick vote. The main idea is to take turns choosing the type of entertainment, so that one week you do what the older one likes and the next week you implement the idea of the toddler. This approach gives each child the feeling that his or her opinion counts, and saves you a lot of stress and unnecessary discussions.
What common activities will bring siblings together? Proven and simple methods
If you lack ideas on what exactly you can do together without constant complaining, it is worth choosing activities that allow you to assigning tasks tailored to age and abilities individual children:
- cooking dinner or baking a cake, where the toddler washes vegetables and fruits, and the teenager deals with the hot stove and cutting ingredients
- a trip to the forest combined with team games in which no one counts the points and no single winner is selected
- conversations over a shared meal with questions about what was the best moment of the day, which brings all household members closer together
- doing housework or minor volunteering, in which older children help younger children understand the principles of helping others
This division of roles means that none of the children feel rejected or inferior in a given field, which effectively kills boredom. Moreover, according to publications in the Therapeutic Recreation Journal, engaging the entire family in interesting challenges is a great way to build closeness, teaches children how to cope with everyday difficulties and facilitates calm communication.
A younger child cries after losing to his brother. How to react to tantrums?
You probably know that moment when a board game or a ball game ends in tears of a toddler who, due to his height and age, simply has no chance of winning. In turn, the older child is nervous about lying next to the younger one again, which means that playing together loses all meaning for him. In a split second, a happy afternoon turns into a big row, and you’re left trying to calm down your screaming siblings.
When children cannot communicate and emotions take over, it is best to take the role calmly and completely impartial judge. The HealthyChildren website suggests that in the event of such tensions, you should completely abandon following strict rules and choose games based on the cooperation of the entire team. It is always worth listening to both sides calmly before making any decisions, and making sure that your home rules of behavior are clear to everyone before you start playing.
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