When Happy Hour Fills Your Cup

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Happy Hour is just that - HAPPY! Does it need to be anything else?

It’s easy to get so focused on homeschooling that we forget to just have fun with our kiddos on a regular basis. So, grab your Kombucha, your kid, and their favorite drink - and have your own Happy Hour.

There are many one-on-one activities you can choose from, just make sure you do it together. Ideas include:

• Paint each other’s nails (my teen’s favorite non-toxic brand here)

• Give massages

• Discuss a book you both read

• Make their favorite cookies or “dying to try” recipe

• Play video games or board games (my teen’s favorite one-on-one game here)

• Build a Lego kit or Kiwi Crate kit

• Go on a walk or bike ride in the neighborhood

• Hike on trails near your home

• Jacuzzi time

• Dance party

• Tea party

• How-to draw videos

• Make something out of a cereal box (fun glitter paper like ours here)

Whatever it is…give them options that are possible, and let them pick. The key is - you do it together, just you and your child. That is your Happy Hour.

Our Experience

Previously, we picked a Saturday for our Happy Hours with each parent and child since we knew that both the Spouse and I would be available. While one of us was on a Happy Hour, the other one was helping the other kids with their regular needs. This allowed the Happy Hour parent and child to truly have their own special time. The Spouse and my son went for a hike. My daughter made up a drawing game that was really quite fun for me. Another daughter wanted video games together with each of us. All our kids want is a little bit of our undivided attention doing what they want to do. They get to decide; they feel in control.

The Packaging

Yes - we do this type of stuff all the time, but it’s how we packaged it that made it feel more special. Even just calling it “Happy Hour” is creative enough to signify something special is happening. Many of us have had big “dates” with our kids whether it be a father-son trampoline event or father-daughter dance, but those are few and far between - how about weekly or monthly? Happy Hour can be a spur of the moment suggestion when you know one of your kids is having a rough day or week. Or, it can be planned on a certain night each week that rotates through each of your children. However you want to do it - it’s only an hour, but the packaging makes it more special.

Fill Their Cup

Happy Hour should be stocked full of syrup that sweetens the experience - syrup that adds flavor to their cup. Fill up their cup with rich encouragement. Tell them how proud you are of them. Give them hugs, kisses, high-fives, winks, whatever physical affection they appreciate. Show sincere delight in the activity you get to do with them. Show them that you are someone they can always trust to keep filling their cup. There will be others that poke holes in their cup, but you - YOU are the filler-upper.

The Precedence

Setting a Happy Hour precedence when your kids are young, will provide the architecture for the future - when you truly and deeply need the Happy Hour with your teenager to connect and talk about hard things. This precedence matters especially when they are at an age that makes it hard for them to approach you and talk with you about hard things. If you’ve had Happy Hours with your kids when they were little, as they get older, they might actually come to rely on that special time regularly. If you have teens and haven’t started this practice yet, announce it at your next family dinner and schedule the day and time. Depending on your teen’s temperament, they might be confused or annoyed at first. Over time though, when happy hour fills their cup, they will look forward to it. And this might possibly be the only time you two will have deep conversations, explore goals, and just enjoy being together with no painful interactions.

Start Now

So start the Happy Hour experiences now. Be there now. Listen now. Play now. And then later, they will turn to you to fill their cup - and yours will be filled too.

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