5 Hands-On Ways to Connect With Your Kids On A Hard Day

One of my most popular posts to date has been Top 10 Tricks for Stay-At-Home Moms to Turn A {Bad} Day Around.  I can easily guess why… because we all have those days.  One reason I love the blogosphere is because I can connect with other moms all over the world going through many of the same obstacles and feelings every day, and we can all find ways to encourage and support each other.  Isn’t the internet an amazing tool?

I have run across several lovely posts with more great suggestions for what to do when the day might be dragging on or negativity is setting in, for you and/or your kids… and thought I would share five of my favorites. When we are having hard days (and they are just part of life!) it is great to be armed with good ideas for bringing some “sparkle” into the darkness.

If you have another idea (or a post) which has helped you with connecting with your kids on a hard day, please link it in the comments!  Let’s share the sparkle, shall we?

Thank you to the authors of these posts for giving me permission to share their lovely photographs in this article.

Create A Chill Out Corner

I loved the idea of creating a “chill out corner” from Adventures At Home With Mum – which you can see as a guest post here.  The idea is that instead of putting kids in a “naughty corner” or disconnecting, a “chill out corner” is a nice way to help everyone spend some quiet time in a safe place and then come together when things are more peaceful.  There are 7 ideas included for what kids may like to do in this space to help calm down and re-center.

And a place to chill out is a great idea for moms, too!  I can think of plenty of moments I might benefit from a “chill out chair” where I can drink a cup of water and take deep breaths in peace, to prepare myself to resume the day’s work with a brighter smile. 🙂

Make A Mommy Meltdown Basket

The Mommy Meltdown Basket is a lovely idea from Connecting Family and Seoul.  In this post you can find out how bringing a few calming items together can help mama take care of herself and connect with her children, even when the situation is difficult.

Practice Some Relaxation Techniques

I found these lovely (and simple!) relaxation techniques over at Octavia and Vicky.  The post shares five ideas for helping young children relax, which will inevitably help mama relax, too.

Read or Listen to Audio Stories

Reading and listening to audio stories are two other ways to connect and shift attention to a different topic.  Hands-on books are especially useful for the little ones –  you can both sit down and share some quiet time looking through pages and experiencing the pictures and textures.  I have seen so many beautiful “Quiet Books” on And Next Comes L, and here is the link to the wonderful tutorial posted there.

A few weeks ago I posted about some of our favorite audio stories, called Sparkle Stories, which you can read about here.  I find audio stories a wonderful way to cool down and focus on something else, at times when wills are clashing in our home and we could all use a break.  And these stories are uplifting because they offer positive examples of how families and friends work through challenges, so they can be surprisingly relevant to what may be going on in my household as well.

Do An Activity To “Reset” The Day

This post from Pennington Point shares 20 fun ways to get out a funk by doing a simple activity.  I will definitely refer to this post when looking for a quick distraction!  Having fun together, even after a tantrum or series of frustrations, is a perfect way to connect and refill the love tanks.

And if you haven’t read the original post that inspired this collection of ideas, you can read my “top 10 tricks” here.

What do you think?  Might these ideas work when you are having a hard day, to bring some sparkle back into your home?

What do you do on a hard day?  Or which idea might you like to try?