Daily Practice 01
Connect · 2 minutes
Two-Minute Connection
Two uninterrupted minutes with your child, where nothing is being taught, fixed or corrected.
The moment
You have been in the same house all evening and have not actually looked at each other.
Every exchange so far has been logistics: shoes, bag, dinner, teeth.
There is no free hour coming. There are two minutes.
Try this
Two-Minute Connection
- 01Put the phone face down in another room, or at least out of your hand.
- 02Go to where your child already is.Their floor, their game, their bedroom door. Do not summon them to you.
- 03Say what you are doing, plainly."I've got two minutes and I want to spend them here."
- 04Follow their lead for the whole two minutes.Their subject, their pace, their game. Comment more than you question.
- 05Leave before they do.End it warm rather than letting it fade out.
If they ignore you, stay anyway. Presence without pressure still counts.
Why it may help
Children often read attention by its quality rather than its length. Short, predictable moments where a parent is not evaluating them can make it easier for a child to bring something up later, because the relationship is not only used for correction. Following a child's lead rather than steering the interaction may also reduce the sense of being managed, which can lower resistance in the moments that do require direction.
Make it yours
- With a younger childSit on the floor and narrate what they are doing instead of asking questions. Play answers more readily than conversation does.
- With a teenSkip the announcement. Arrive with a drink, stay for two minutes, ask nothing about school.
- When there's no timeDo it in the doorway. Two minutes standing there still lands.
Keep this line
Attention your child does not have to earn is the kind they remember.
Try it today
Choose one child and two minutes.
Ask nothing you already know the answer to.
That is the whole practice.
Daily Practices are psychoeducational wellbeing practices, not therapy, diagnosis or medical advice. They are written to be used imperfectly, on ordinary days.