One of the greatest gifts you can offer your children is your presence. Not just your physical presence—I’m talking about bringing your whole entire being into every interaction. These moments are precious, and you only get one shot to be the mother or father of your three-year-old. Once they turn four, you never get that previous phase back. Not only that, but they will never get your presence back for each stage of life they progress through.
We live in a fast-paced world full of a million distractions. Life is hard, and most people have a difficult enough time tending to their own priorities. Throw in raising whole additional human beings—and now life feels like pure chaos most of the time. All the simple day-to-day distractions of adulthood can make it easy to mail it in when it comes to parenting. It’s much easier to hand a child a screen than it is to actively engage with them. It’s tempting to scroll your phone while they’re telling you a story and chalk it up to multitasking. But this habit of split focus is an abdication of duty. By regularly deprioritizing your child, you are communicating their level of importance relative to whatever else has your attention.
Rather than resist the reality that parenting is non-stop, I encourage you to embrace it wholeheartedly. Being fully engaged means tuning out the world and listening to what your child is saying. It means asking relevant questions, giving thoughtful follow-ups, and picking up on subtle signals that invite you into deeper connections. Actually talking to your kids has become a bit of a lost art—and it’s time we reclaim it.
At the end of the day, being present with your children isn’t just something nice to do. It is the foundation for raising healthy, resilient, and connected human beings. Your presence is the present.
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