Set an Alarm While Connecting With Your Kids and Pets
Just because you’re at home with your partner, children, or pets all the time doesn’t mean that you’re better off spending time with each other. In fact, the opposite could have been the case; you may feel like you are spending too much time together right now. But quantity is not the same as quality, and when everyone is isolated in their separate corners of the house (or constantly running all over the place), it might be a good idea to set aside some time for communication – setting an alarm. …
You may have already created a good system for communicating with other people – and animals – in your home. Maybe you have family evening meals and weekly scrabble tournaments with your partner and have doubled down on how often you walk your dog. In this case, you probably won’t need this trick (unless you want to add more structure to connect with your loved ones).
However, if your cat takes offense at your lack of attention and ignores you for several weeks and it seems that whatever you say to your partner these days is said to be in a tone that has a definite advantage to him, you might want to give it a try.
It’s pretty straightforward. Decide who you want to give a little extra attention to, and figure out on what schedule you can work it. Perhaps all you need is to reevaluate and mentally re-devote yourself to better quality time. But if you know you’ll give up that commitment at the first sign of a big project at work, set an alarm on your phone.
The alarm reminds you that it was important enough for you to interrupt your day (we hope this is the most convenient time for you). If you want it to remain manageable, set another alarm 10, 15, or 20 minutes later to signal that it’s time to get back to work or start cooking dinner. It’s not about adding something to your to-do list, but about making a small segment of your day more focused so you get the most emotional return on your investment.
The alarm can remind you to play Catch a Fish at noon with the kids, or let the dog run and play, or sit down with your partner for lunch. Hopefully you only need an alarm reminder for a week or so until these little connections become a daily part of your day.