Why 15 Minutes of Unfiltered Presence Beats a Weekend of Half-Hearted Parenting

The Importance of Being Present for our Kids

I see a lot of parents who are ghosts in their own homes, haunting their kids with a physical presence while their brains are trapped in a digital and career dungeon.

They sit on the sidelines like a sack of wet flour, staring at a glowing rectangle while their children scream for a witness to their existence.

If you want to raise a kid with the grit of a Puddle Jumper and the heart of a lion, you have to stop spectating and start leading from the front.

If you are spending all your time on your career and digital distractions (scrolling at the game or play), you are just teaching your kids that they are a secondary objective.

And it compounds like interest on an investment account.

When you are with your kids, you need to lock onto that frequency with the intensity of a sniper’s optic and trust me, they will notice.

If you are at the park acting like a biological placeholder while your kid is trying to show you a bug or a backflip, you are not being a parent.

You are not just missing a memory. You are actively training them to be as distracted and twitchy as you are.

Be present.

Actions speak louder than words, always.

Discard the Digital Tether: Put your phone away. The world is full of distractions screaming for your attention.

Let’em scream. Your kids deserve your full bandwidth.

Be a good listener, and start asking better questions.

“How was your day?”=Fail

“What’s the most interesting thing that happened to you or your friends today?”=Pass

Kids have a built-in radar for bullshit.

Give them the same intense focus you would give an important career meeting.

Do not be a spectator in your own home.

This weekend I took my son up for a ride over the Portuguese coastline. If you’ve ever seen, 100 Foot Wave, on HBO the photo below is about the big wave spot, Nazare.

Be present your family. If you have multiple kids, take them out to an individual lunch or dinner. Get a chance to know them outside the sibling group.

Trust me, once those years are gone, there are no do overs and no second chances.

***Please consider ordering Puddle Jumpers for yourself, or a friend or family member. Pre-orders (Buy here) are so important for us authors. Thx for listening! Brandon