By Jim Coggins

PARENTING experts stress the importance of moms and dads spending quality and quantity time with their kids. Let’s face it: real life often makes that a lofty goal.

Most parents spend hours each day working to pay bills. Add household chores. Then add time spent sitting in waiting rooms or in traffic – and fulfilling obligations at church, or for extended family. At day’s end, there’s little time or energy left for connecting in a meaningful way with one’s children.

Grace Fox, author of 10-Minute Time Outs for You and Your Kids, found this to be true as she and her husband raised their three children. Realizing the importance of being intentional, the couple read books aloud to their youngsters.

They played board games. They went boating, biking and swimming. They attended summer family camps. But some of their best memories were made in quiet one-on-one moments.

For instance, when their youngest was in kindergarten, the couple followed a teacher’s suggestion and began asking their daughter simple questions at bedtime.

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“She loved the routine,” said Fox. “It became a fun and easy tradition that strengthened bonds between us.”

The tradition worked so well that the Foxes, now grandparents, recently released a product called Tuck-Me-In.

Each box contains 90 cards with questions for parents to ask their children, ages 3 to 8. The product is quickly gaining popularity.

Vanessa Pierson, a grade one teacher and mother of two, said: “I like how Tuck-Me-In creates a simple way to engage in meaningful conversation with my five year old, at the end of a busy day. As an educator, I’m excited that it encourages my child’s oral language development.”

Tuck-Me-In makes the experts’ advice attainable.

This easy-to-use resource is available at most Christian bookstores across B.C.’s Lower Mainland, and on Vancouver Island – and on Fox’s website: gracefox.com.

May 2010