The Second Thing: Enjoy (The Collapse of Parenting: Chapter 9)

Most people will say they enjoy their time with their kids, but when surveyed on a range of enjoyable activities it actually doesn't score very high. Why? Because a lot of parenting is work, but...we need to PLAN FOR FUN. We must have fun with our children.

• Go out into nature.
• No devices at mealtime!
• No headphones in the car.
• Don't multi-task when you're with your child. BE with THEM! This means we have to try to do less ourselves and have our children doing less. Relaxed family time should not be at the bottom of the barrel of priorities. In North America, we have a culture now of boasting about how busy we are and how much we are doing.

Personally, living in the Middle East, I have to say people here really do enjoy their kids a lot more than in North America. There is something about the structure of society here that allows for that.