![\"Father](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/368\/2014\/05\/bigstock-Father-and-daughter-day-at-the-43174627-300x199.jpg\")
<\/a>Most of us go through life doing our best to manage all of the noise and distractions that are present in our jobs, at home and out in the world. It can truly be an activity in not losing our minds. Our world is buzzing with business, people and tasks that require our attention.\u00a0 Is it any wonder that we can have trouble being fully present with our children when we have a million things on our minds that require energy from us?<\/p>\nI believe that we want to be fully present to those around us and most especially with our kids, but to be fully present we can use the tools of intention, focus <\/i><\/b>and attention.<\/i><\/b> Perhaps we aren\u2019t able to change the circumstance of our lives in being less busy, but we are in control of the moment-to-moment experiences we have with our children.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Intention<\/i> is a good place to start, as intention is what drives the energy toward our goals.\u00a0 Are we intending to be more present? I found that when I intended to be more present with with my kids, I was halfway there. Then, I had to focus <\/i>specific attention toward them, and stay focused on the conversation or exchange at hand.<\/p>\n
Lastly, I needed to pay close attention<\/i> to what my kids were saying. This is important, as we will want to respond accordingly.<\/p>\n
What does it mean for us to be fully present with our children? It can mean:<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0\u00a0 Pausing whatever activity or chore we are involved in, sitting down and facing our kids.<\/p>\n
2)\u00a0\u00a0 Engaging in eye contact whether we\u2019re sitting with them or from across the room.<\/p>\n
3)\u00a0\u00a0 Listening to our kids talk and not speaking until we\u2019re sure they have finished.<\/p>\n
4)\u00a0\u00a0 Postponing other conversations such as cell phones or television when our children are interacting with us.<\/p>\n
5)\u00a0\u00a0 Choosing to let situations with our kids unfold rather than trying to direct them.<\/p>\n
6)\u00a0\u00a0 Grounding ourselves and being fully present in our own bodies, so we stand a greater chance of being fully present.<\/p>\n
In a world full of noise and distractions, our kids want to feel valued and heard. As we stay present to what they are saying and experiencing, we develop meaningful exchanges and deeper relationships with them. We know from our own experiences how it feels when others are present with us.<\/p>\n
Please feel free to comment!<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2014. \u00a0Sharon Ballantine. \u00a0All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Most of us go through life doing our best to manage all of the noise and distractions that are present in our jobs, at home and out in the world. It can truly be an activity in not losing our minds. Our world is buzzing with business, people and tasks that require our attention.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":569,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Are We Being Fully Present With Our Kids? - Parenting on Purpose<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are We Being Fully Present With Our Kids? - Parenting on Purpose\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 Most of us go through life doing our best to manage all of the noise and distractions that are present in our jobs, at home and out in the world. It can truly be an activity in not losing our minds. Our world is buzzing with business, people and tasks that require our attention.\u00a0…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Parenting on Purpose\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-24T14:33:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/files\/2014\/05\/bigstock-Father-and-daughter-day-at-the-43174627-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"srballantine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Are We Being Fully Present With Our Kids? - Parenting on Purpose","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Are We Being Fully Present With Our Kids? - Parenting on Purpose","og_description":"\u00a0 Most of us go through life doing our best to manage all of the noise and distractions that are present in our jobs, at home and out in the world. It can truly be an activity in not losing our minds. Our world is buzzing with business, people and tasks that require our attention.\u00a0…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html","og_site_name":"Parenting on Purpose","article_published_time":"2014-05-24T14:33:36+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/files\/2014\/05\/bigstock-Father-and-daughter-day-at-the-43174627-300x199.jpg"}],"author":"srballantine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html","name":"Are We Being Fully Present With Our Kids? - Parenting on Purpose","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/files\/2014\/05\/bigstock-Father-and-daughter-day-at-the-43174627-300x199.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-24T14:33:36+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-24T14:33:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/#\/schema\/person\/a85d0fac5176f3ce8e80c2b1c95e93cb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/files\/2014\/05\/bigstock-Father-and-daughter-day-at-the-43174627-300x199.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/files\/2014\/05\/bigstock-Father-and-daughter-day-at-the-43174627-300x199.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/2014\/05\/are-we-being-fully-present-with-our-kids.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Are We Being Fully Present With Our Kids?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/","name":"Parenting on Purpose","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Sharon Ballantine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/#\/schema\/person\/a85d0fac5176f3ce8e80c2b1c95e93cb","name":"srballantine","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/author\/srballantine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/569"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Father](\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/parentingonpurpose\/files\/2014\/05\/bigstock-Father-and-daughter-day-at-the-43174627.jpg\")
<\/a>Most of us go through life doing our best to manage all of the noise and distractions that are present in our jobs, at home and out in the world. It can truly be an activity in not losing our minds. Our world is buzzing with business, people and tasks that require our attention.\u00a0 Is it any wonder that we can have trouble being fully present with our children when we have a million things on our minds that require energy from us?<\/p>\n